Frankenbug

""All the kids in my class think I'm weird. They're right,"" opens this offbeat debut novel narrated by Adam Cricklestein, a self-described ""bug freak."" The boy spends his free time experimenting with bugs, tending to the bug menagerie that inhabits his bedroom or visiting with the curator of the insect room at a local museum. Most of his classmates leave him be, except for jeering Jeb, who cruelly tortures Adam's beloved bugs whenever he gets the chance. Inspired by the film Frankenstein, Adam decides to create a ""monster bug"" that will protect him from this bully. Adam uses strands of spider web to stitch together body parts of preserved, exotic insects he orders from a catalogue, then employs 100 fireflies to zap life into his newly created Frankenbug. After this multicolored flying creature attacks Jeb, the boy's police chief father vows to capture Jeb's assailant. Unfortunately, the showdown between Adam and the chief in the museum's insect room, where the boy has taken refuge with his pet, falls flat. Cousins's tale relies too much on one gag to fly. Ages 8-12. (Dec.)