WE GIVE A SQUID A WEDGIE

Celia and Oliver are beginning to wonder if destiny will ever stop lobbing accidental adventures their way.

On New Year’s Eve, 11 (and 1/2)–year-old twins Celia and Oliver Navel want what they always want: to sit in front of their new cable TV and eat snack cakes…but both their parents are world-renowned explorers. In fact they live on the 4 1/2th floor of the Explorer’s Club, and they have to attend the Club’s New Year’s Gala. When a squid attack (don’t ask) brings an abrupt end to the festivities, they return home to find ichthyologist Chris Stickles waiting with a message from their (intermittently) missing mother: She needs their help to find Plato’s map and maybe Atlantis, and maybe the Lost Library of Alexandria. Thankfully (well, not in the twins’ opinion) teen heartthrob Corey Brandt is there to offer his boat for the expedition. The reluctant adventurers are off again on a wedgie- and Pirate Chicken (err, Rooster)–filled quest. London’s third in the series does not let up on the Saturday-morning-cartoon goofiness, and the sibling rivalry heats up a bit, too. Duddle’s occasional black-and-white illustrations are a plus in this open-ended romp that will definitely satisfy fans.

High-seas hijinks with more laughs (and groans and squids) than adventure.