PUPPY FAT

In this third installment in a humorous series about the trials of worrier Keith Shipley (Misery Guts, 1993, etc.), he is now concerned about his divorced parents. They mope around their houses, out of shape and uninterested in making themselves attractive. Keith embarks on a series of creative but ineffective schemes to shape them up, culminating in the visit of his best friend, Tracy, and her aunt. Aunt Bev is making Tracy wretched with her obsession with dieting and cosmetic surgery. When she goes to work on Keith's parents, he feels the need, once again, to take matters into his own hands. Gleitzman's genius for endearingly quirky protagonists more than makes up for the far-fetched story. Keith, genuinely selfless, spends all of his time attempting to make everyone else's life perfect. His complete incompetence deters him not at all, nor will it deter readers from enjoying his increasingly grandiose, inevitably doomed, schemes. Absurdly funny stuff. (Fiction. 8-12)