Lenny and Mel

by Erik P. Kraft, Erik P. Kraft (Illustrator)

Overview

Lenny and Mel know how to celebrate holidays in the best ways possible — well, pretty much the best ways — and they're ready to share their secrets with you. In this book, you'll learn how to tempt the Leftover Fairy after Thanksgiving. You'll find out the secret behind the mystical New Year's Eve ball drop. Then you'll see how papier-mâché, ziti, and raisins can come in handy on Presidents' Day and Cinco de Mayo. It's all inside. And there's much, much, much more....

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689858918
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	04/18/2012
Series:	Ready-for-Chapters
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	820L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Erik P. Kraft lives in Boston, where he constantly has an eye out for undercover reporters. His school didn't have a monkey club either.

Erik P. Kraft lives in Boston, where he constantly has an eye out for undercover reporters. His school didn't have a monkey club either.

Read an Excerpt

Lenny and Mel know how to celebrate holidays in the best ways possible -- well, pretty much the best ways -- and they're ready to share their secrets with you. In this book, you'll learn how to tempt the Leftover Fairy after Thanksgiving. You'll find out the secret behind the mystical New Year's Eve ball drop. Then you'll see how papier-mâché, ziti, and raisins can come in handy on Presidents' Day and Cinco de Mayo. It's all inside. And there's much, much, much more....

Editorial Reviews

PW called this story a "spirited tale of impish twins who concoct their own zany holiday celebrations, with deadpan cartoon-panel drawings that may well get even nonreaders in on the laughs." Ages 7-10. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 2-5-Similar to Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" series and "Ricky Ricotta" books (all Scholastic) in its zaniness, this title will meet the need for more funny books. In nine episodes, Lenny and Mel experience the American holidays in less than typical fashion. From the "Leftover Fairy" who is supposed to exchange all that extra Thanksgiving turkey for cash to the Presidents' Day assignments when the boys spend so much time on the papier-m ch heads that they forget to prepare the oral report, this title offers a unique approach to celebrating. "Presidents' Day is the day for presidents.-There are a lot of sales on this day." Small line drawings that look as if an eight-year-old drew them add to the fun. There are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity. There are also a couple of episodes that fall a couple fries short of a Happy Meal, and there's lots of room for improvement in the characterization department. Only the CIP indicates that the boys are twins, and readers may wonder why they are in the same class at school. Still, these light, comic adventures will find a ready audience.-Sharon R. Pearce, Geronimo Public School, OK Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Newcomer Kraft treads unafraid through Scieszka and Pinkwater territory with these holiday misadventures, perpetrated on, or by, clueless twins (fraternal ones, to judge from the stick figure illustrations) Lenny and Mel. Lenny's the smart one, though that's not saying much; it's Mel who goes trick-or-treating as a box, but forgets to cut eyeholes, and guess whose pillow the Thanksgiving leftovers are piled under in hopes of attracting "The Leftover Fairy." It takes two, though, to find just the right snack for Santa (" ‘ja-la-peñ-o' . . . ‘I think it means "super cheese' "), or to create giant heads of Washington and Lincoln for Presidents' Day that do double duty as shatterproof piñatas on "Cinco de My, Oh, My." Linty leftovers aside, the author goes more for droll humor than cheap laffs or grossness. An impromptu neighborhood Flag Day parade, flagless but enthusiastic, caps this promising, easy-reading eye-roller. (Fiction. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews