HOOEY HIGGINS AND THE TREMENDOUS TROUSERS

Best buddies Hooey and Twig are back, this time competing in a contest to invent something that will make the world a safer place.

Hooey wouldn’t usually find such a challenge particularly interesting, but health-and-safety teacher Miss Troutson is sweetening the pot. The winning design will garner tickets to the local fair. Setting his tale in the fictional English village of Shrimpton, Voake brings to life the silly machinations of Hooey, who always has some sort of half-baked plan, and his gullible pal, Twig. Here, Hooey’s plan involves entering inflatable Tremendous Trousers stuffed with bubble wrap and powered by diet soda and mints into the safety contest. Hooey’s older (and mathematically inclined) brother, Will, has ideas, too, and his scheme to make money off bully Basbo threatens Twig’s life. In the end, Twig dresses as a woman in a pair of his grandmother’s yellow stretch trousers and spews diet soda and mints all over the safety assembly. Seems those TremTrows were not so safe after all. Crazy situations follow Twig and Hooey, and each episode is described in hilarious detail with lively language (“eyes bulged like soft-boiled eggs” or “lit up like two cracked headlights”). Humorous black-and-white illustrations are the ideal foil for this over-the-top buddy tale.

Lots of laughs and hijinks make this fast-paced series great for readers with a sophisticated funny bone.