RAYMOND AND GRAHAM RULE THE SCHOOL

Raymond and best friend Graham have been looking forward to fourth grade since they were first graders, when they were mightily impressed by the big kids. It’s their turn now and, not surprisingly, being fourth graders isn’t quite the unfettered glory they had anticipated. No humorous incident is too low to be recounted, as when Raymond eats a whole jar of prunes, nor too gross, as he also tries kissing as a means to get sick with a cold and get out of the class play. Embarrassment is best handled with a friend at your side, and the devotion these two have for each other makes the worst tolerable. Kids moving on from Herbie Jones or Owen Foote will find this new series right up their alley. Teachers, parents and especially girls are depicted not so much as individual people but as a boys’-eye-view of the generic of the species—but the skimpy character development seems to be the point. The authors draw a bead on the fourth-grade funny bone and hit a bull’s-eye. (Fiction. 8-11)