Gr 3-6-With a zany style and deep insight into the secret lives of boys, Cumyn tells a series of connected stories about young Owen Skye and his two brothers, Andy and Leonard. Their adventures are, by turns, funny, frightening, and genuinely dangerous. All are fully engaging, although at times readers might wonder where reality stops and fantasy begins. Are there really aliens that can be contacted by radio from Dead Man's Hill? Does the Bog Man really suck out the juice from cattle? Is their archenemy the giant squid doing more evil deeds? But beyond the supernatural, Owen is bewildered by ordinary things, including his sudden attraction to Sylvia, which leads to a Valentine's Day fiasco and a visit to the dreaded principal. The boys have hilarious conversations about many subjects, including God: "Well, if God is everywhere, then he must be in toilet paper too! And cheese broccoli soup." Cumyn's prose is lively and liberally sprinkled with sparkling turns of phrase: "On that march home the cold slipped inside the boys' snowsuits and drained away all their heat like a plug had been pulled from the bathtub." The characters are fresh and genuinely fascinating, from Owen's clueless parents and his strange but wise Uncle Lorne, who lives in the dank basement, to kindly Nurse Debbie and others who enter the lives of these unruly siblings. This book is very funny, and it would be a splendid read-aloud or read-alone choice.-Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Middle brother Owen joins forces with older Andy and younger Leonard for several adventures in this episodic family story set in the post-WWII era. Some of the outings are typical: Owen's regard for unapproachable Sylvia, a late night tale of Bog Man. Others are more original, such as when Owen's finger is sliced by a garage door. Owen's wry perspective is engaging and believable in a novel that succeeds in combining humor with poignancy.

A middle child muddles through one minor mishap after another in this Canadian author's lightweight, low-key debut for young readers. Caught between the reckless schemes of older brother Andy, who's forever promoting such harebrained ideas as taking a shortcut across a railway bridge, and the challenges of having a little sibling, Leonard, who is already smart enough to cozen both older brothers out of all of their Halloween loot—and to stay off that bridge—Owen's life isn't so much "secret" as subject to sudden complications. Though Cumyn draws his incidents, by and large, from the standard chapter-book menu—the battle with bullies, the wildly misinformed conversation about sex, the supporting cast of inept male adults, etc.—he does subject his preteen Everylad to moments of high triumph and terror. He closes with a poignant, ice-breaking encounter between Owen and classmate Sylvia, on whom he's had a longstanding crush, on the very day she and her parents pack up to move away. It's not exactly venturesome writing, but Hurwitz fans and other readers who prefer to stay in familiar territory will enjoy following the ups and down of this closely knit trio of siblings. (Fiction. 10-12)