Uncle Frank's Pit

In this story of eccentricity run amok, a boy and his parents play host to the bespectacled title character, who moves in unexpectedly and begins digging a giant hole in their yard. With his bow tie, sweater vest and curly white hair, Uncle Frank looks the part of the nutty but harmless mock-scientist. He tells his nephew that he's looking for prehistoric relics, but ""after two weeks of digging we hadn't found a single dinosaur bone. ""`What's the rush?' said Uncle Frank."" Frank evidently has ulterior motives; he furnishes the pit with a couch and sink, throws a party and receives letters addressed to a ""lower apartment."" McElligott, who examined family dynamics in The Truth About Cousin Ernie's Head, treats this volatile situation with peculiar humor. He contrasts the scheming and daydreaming Uncle Frank with the narrator's blond-haired, square mom and dad, who hem and haw but don't evict their freeloading relation from their tidy suburban plot. McElligott's skewed wit and deadpan delivery seem borrowed from a BBC comedy, but there is little hilarity--even when the yard yields a colossal, Olmec-style head. After the big payoff, Uncle Frank simply leaves town, and readers will share his ambivalence. Ages 5-8. (Sept.)