THE GANG: BOOK ONE

High-school football permeates the battle between good and evil in this gripping if clumsy debut. Eight students at St. Adalbert’s High School show unusual talents: Jerry, for example, is unusually speedy; Juan is irresistibly attractive to females; Isaac is large and strong; the two token girls heal and speak with animals, respectively. The teens are the latest gathering of the Gang, a cyclically recurring group of magically gifted children dedicated to the forces of good. The Gang is challenged by villainous General Beel and his army of zombies, and fight with the help of the school’s nuns, members of a former Gang. Along the way, they prove their superiority over clownishly wicked teachers, including the bullying football coach, an excessively unintelligent instructor who cheats at football (though the Gang members use magical gifts to defeat him, leaving their moral high ground shaky). Despite awkward prose and a few continuity errors, the Gang’s rough-and-tumble mythic quest is an enjoyable page-turner. (Fantasy. 11-14)