MUD FLAT APRIL FOOL

April Fools’ Day brings out the joker in Mud Flat’s animal residents: George the fox breaks out his squirting lapel rose, Newt the gator tries the old dollar-on-a-string trick, a mole produces a note that she claims was left by space aliens. When young Matt and Zack congratulate themselves on seeing through crusty old Mrs. Beekley’s party invitation, the joke’s on them—the invitation was real, and they almost miss the party. The deadpan figures in Stevenson’s splashy watercolor vignettes add to the fun; none of the pranks are harmful or mean, and often the would-be victims efficiently turn the tables. Tongue-in-cheek humor, delivered in deft and funny chapters. (Fiction. 6-8)