101 WAYS TO BUG YOUR TEACHER

“Sneeze” Wyatt, 13, is too smart for his own good. That point is driven home when his parents announce they’ve made plans for him to skip the eighth grade, landing him in classrooms full of ninth graders, but also sending him to high school without any of the friends he’s worked so hard to make. Sneeze just wants to get to the Invention Convention in San Francisco with his “nice alarm,” the alarm clock that wakes you gently. Now he has to get his grade up in Mrs. “Fierce” Pierce’s history class and join clubs to prove he’s ready for ninth grade. Sneeze doesn’t have the time or the inclination to do either. Stolen inventions, inventor’s block, sick friends, and a surprise from his parents all complicate his existence until he makes his wishes known. Wardlaw’s sequel to 101 Ways to Bug Your Parents (1996) suffers from some of the same maladies as its predecessor: the humor is sometimes forced and a couple of the characters are plain annoying. Tweens will pick this up because of the title. Some will get a few chuckles out of it, but they’ll find the best laughs in the list at the back that’s followed by instructions on mummifying chickens. (Fiction. 9-14)