It's tough when you think you have the perfect idea for your science project--and it backfires like a green-smoke-producing chemistry accident. Shrink--so named because his mother is a psychologist and his dad is a neurosurgeon--figures that performing a handwriting analysis on his middle-school science teacher as a classic example of a criminal mind would be perfectly well received. Alas, he ends up in the principal's office... without a project. When he meets the corpulent Pig, Angelo Pighetti, he seizes the opportunity to conduct a human weight-loss experiment, but soon discovers that using a classmate as a guinea pig is more complicated than he anticipated. "You see these guys?" I asked, pointing at the evil foods. "You mean those little candy-bar men?" he asked. "Right. You know who they are?" Pig was quiet for a moment, studying them. His face was blank. "No," he said, slowly shaking his head. "But I think I like them." In this fast-paced, funny novel, Pamela Todd develops a real, complex friendship between Pig and Shrink--one that evolves despite the odd scientist-lab rat dynamic, and amidst a sea of schoolyard fat jokes. Shrink thinks that while he's proving his scientific prowess, he's also helping Pig become a better person. But the truth is, Shrink--born of ambitious, controlled parents--has a lot to learn from the bon vivant Angelo Pighetti and his "noisy, messy, out of control" life at his family's pizzeria. The author serves up generous helpings of Chinese zodiac lore, fortune-cookie wisdom ("Wise men are not always learned. Learned men are not always wise."), and laugh-out-loud witty banter in this wise, compassionate middle-grade novel that will stick to your ribs. (Ages 8 to 12) --Karin Snelson