The New Kid by Mavis Jukes Intermediate Knopf 279 pp. 12/11 978-0-375-85879-6 $14.99 library ed. 978-0-375-95879-3 $17.99 e-booked. 978-0-375-89631-6 $9.99

Is nine about the right age to retire your stuffed animal? From this question and from the premise of being the new kid at school Jukes crafts a moving, hilarious, and artful story of Carson, his dad, and the cast of the new school. Several plots and mysteries tumble along together - the escape of Mr. Nibblenose, the class rat; the possibility that Mrs. Crabbly the teacher is in trouble with the law; the delicious and slightly scary rambunctiousness of Wesley, the class clown. The originality here lies in the voice, as Jukes captures perfectly the loopy, borderline-absurd perceptions of a third-grade boy. As we listen to Carson's stream-of-consciousness riffs on school uniforms, demolition derby, and what is the opposite of a s'more, we enter a richly detailed and benign world, gently satirical, crisply energetic, and with the slight edge of melancholy that all good humor contains. Carson is adopted and his dad is single, but there is nary an issue in this story, just real, kind, hugely likable people in situations that ring funny and true. SARAH ELLIS