DON'T BUG ME!

In this breezy if slight first novel, narrator Megan is having trouble completing her sixth-grade science project, which entails finding and labeling 25 species of bugs. A major impediment to her progress is her bug-loving, five-year-old brother, Alexander, who feels so bad for the insects Megan has collected that he removes them from her corkboard and gives them a proper burial outdoors. Class clown Charlie, who apparently would rather fail science than complete the assignment, makes the insect-less Megan the butt of his constant barrage of jokes (e.g., he writes, "Beggin' Megan is begging for bugs!" on a blackboard and puts realistic-looking candy bugs in her lunch bag). After much seething ("Oooh, that Charlie Bettencourt!" and "Ohhh, that Charlie Bettencourt!"), she discovers that he refuses to collect bugs because he is terrified of them, and she and Charlie strike a truce: he will stop teasing her if she keeps his secret. The characters are affable enough, but the dialogue relies on clichés ("I've got ants in my pants"; "That was so funny, I forgot to laugh") and the preoccupation with the bug project grows thin. Ages 7-11. (June)