BIG WHEEL

Big Wheel Wiggins is the undisputed leader of his gang—an affable and diverse clutch of boys and a few girls who acquired local notoriety with high-jinks like conducting a bowling tournament with plastic flamingos, toadstools, and elves on a vacationing family's lawn. Then slick Topper Smith juggles his way into Marietta and challenges Wheel's position. One by one, members of Wheel's gang defect to explore Topper's old house, swim in his pool, and raid his well-stocked refrigerator. The erosion of Wheel's power base is giving him a massive case of executive stress. When he follows his know-it-all grandfather's crack-down advice, he alienates the last loyal holdout, life-long best friend Tag. After one act of sweet revenge, Wheel is forced to revise his Big Wheel code of ethics: he has to make room for two leaders of the gang, stroke his stray troops, and apologize to Tag. A smart, funny story, with a rollicking pace, smart- alecky dialogue, and snappy similes (when Wheel meets his radio deejay idol, Wild Willie, his heart is ``taking off like a pigeon at a cat show''). Wheel's meteorologist father's disastrous foray into TV weather-forecasting makes an interesting backdrop. A surefire story from a popular author. (Fiction. 10-14)