SHARK SHOCK

Adam is back with a new fear and a different band of talking freckles. In Soccer Shock (1991), Adam used his unique ability to hear his freckles conversing to help him play soccer. Now he wants them to warn him if there are sharks in the water at the Jersey beach where he is spending the summer with his parents and sisters. The only problem is that his freckle pals, Gilbert and Frankie, have stopped talking—at least, Adam can't hear them anymore. Adam figures that if he can sensitize his ears he can talk with them, but he isn't about to get nearly hit by lightning, like he did the first time. Adam tries everything he can think of, from static shocks to putting hair conditioner in his ears, but he only succeeds when he nearly electrocutes himself while playing a video game under a sprinkler. Then his freckles start talking with a vengeance, only they aren't Gilbert and Frankie but the hostile female beauty marks on his shoulder. They are no help at all when it comes to sharks. They trick Adam whenever they can. When a blind boy, Seth, hears Adam conversing with the recalcitrant beauty marks, he and Adam strike up a conversation and become friends. Seth helps Adam tame his spots and overcome his fear of the water, and Adam gives Seth the understanding he needs to accept his blindness. A weird, meandering tale. (Fiction. 8-12)