Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson

Absolutely nutty, over--the-top goofy book. It's bound to please some young tweens and make them smile...if not laugh outright.

The premise is that Lily's father works far a strange company. There is strange.... and then there is strange. This is the latter. Her father's boss is a whale. His disguise slips a bit the day Lily visits her father at work.

It is fortunate for the world that Lily puts the clues together, is not fooled by the disguise, and manages to rally her 2 remarkable friends to help save the world from the impending invasion of whales and their malicious attempts to conquer the world. And yes, the rest of the story and characters are as eccentric as the story line.

Other than a humorous description of an uncle that includes calling him a "weiner," and the destructive trampling of the whales in a thwarted battle to conquer the world, it's a silly-but-safe story.

I admit the humor was mostly wasted on someone my age, but I found a source of amusement in the follow-up book discussion questions that followed the story. Luckily, they were about as serious as the book and pretty witty. Hard to say if the book will tickle your tween's funny bone, but it's worth a try.

SAFETY RATING: 3 Flags