FREDDY AND THE FRENCH FRIES

Another bestselling author for adults tries for the youth market, with all too typically dismal results. Sprinkling references to butts, poop and vomit throughout, Baldacci introduces a nine-year-old inventor who uses “potato-nanotechnology” to turn regular spuds into a quintet of walking, talking, brightly colored giant French fries who help him to rout a gang of bullies armed with paintball guns and to save his dad’s vegetarian burger business. Despite a plethora of cheap laffs, even indiscriminate readers will find the hackneyed characters and trite, slow-moving plot unappetizing. Illustrations not seen. (Fantasy. 9-11)