JACOB TWO-TWO'S FIRST SPY CASE

Third in a series (Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur, o.p., and Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, 1994) about an eight-year-old nicknamed ``Two-Two'' because, as the youngest of five children, he must say everything twice before anyone pays any attention to him. In this adventure Jacob enlists the aid of his new neighbor, X. Barnaby Dinglebat, Master Spy, to foil the gluttonous headmaster I.M. Greedyguts, who has turned over his school's catering contract to the notorious miser Perfectly Loathsome Leo Louse in order to profit from kickbacks. Richler mines the same child-as-underdog- persecuted-by-revolting-and-hypocritical-adults vein that Roald Dahl so richly exploited, without Dahl's felicity of language and gift for fantasy. Instead, grossness and gimmicks (a chapter printed in mirror-writing, a card trick explained in an afterword) will sustain interest. Jacob's role in the plot is confined largely to enduring indignities and following orders, for Mr. Dinglebat, Jacob's father, and a trio of craven cops nail the bad guys. (b&w illustrations, not seen, glossary) (Fiction. 7-10)