Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird

August 1, 2013
Readers afflicted only with pesky sibs should count their blessings: 12-year-old Sammy comes home one day to find his whole family (dog included) turned into a pack of ravening werewolves. Sammy is saved from being bitten himself, or maybe torn apart, by the timely arrival of Donny, a leather-clad cryptozoologist who shoots tranquilizer darts from a silver blowpipe and explains that the werewolves will revert to (more or less, as it happens) human once the full moon has passed. Fortunately, Sammy's parents own a public zoo with behind-the-scenes transit cages that can hold the feral Ferals temporarily. Unfortunately, even back in human form, Sammy's little sister, Natty, retains a taste for raw sausage and live hamster. Can Sammy devise a cure for the Were Virus before the next full moon--while also fending off professor Pickitt, a rival cryptozoologist scheming to turn the Feral Zoo into a display of freaky creatures? Sammy chronicles his plunge into "wackoville" in diarylike entries punctuated with bulleted lists, shocked exclamations of "rewind!" and simple line drawings of the cast and selected scenes. "Sammy Feral = dude supreme!" he crows at the end. Forcibly engineered as his ultimate triumph is, he merits a few howls of appreciation for staying so resolutely on task. (Adventure. 9-11)

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