The creator of Goodnight Goon and The Runaway Mummy pulls from his mad-scientist brain a kid so attracted to slime, muck, dirt, and yuck he could only be called Icky Ricky. Uh-oh! Icky Ricky is in trouble and has a lot of explaining to do. Why? Well, you see . . . He did his homework on cheese slices, but got hungry and ate them. He had his friends over for a sleepover . . . on the bedroom ceiling. Harry, Icky Ricky's favorite hot dog, just landed in his dad's toolbox. The town bully, Mean Dean, is looking to pound whoever lost his remote-controlled car. Was is Icky Ricky? Icky Ricky is up to his eyebrows in mayhem--and in ick! "Icky Ricky proves to be a satisfying new hero for readers who are ready for a more expansive view of the world than that offered by Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants series. . . .  Readers will easily conclude that Ricky is awesome!"-- BooklistOnline "Hits the gross-out sweet spot."-- Kirkus "I thoroughly enjoyed these books, and I look forward to more icky adventures from young Ricky."--Nick Bruel, author of Bad Kitty Gr 2-4-Icky Ricky is a wild little boy, although he has a good heart in that he looks out for a bully's little sister. The author has created ridiculous scenarios; it is okay if Ricky wastes food or puts ketchup and peanut butter on the ceiling. This early chapter book has a lot of destruction and not much substance. It probably won't appeal even to the crowd attracted to slime and dirt as Rex's goal seems to have been merely to fit in as many gross references as possible. Each page has a black-and-white cartoon illustration. Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from Wayside School (HarperCollins, 1998) is a better option.-Elizabeth Swistock, Orange County Public Library, VAα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Icky Ricky proves to be a satisfying new hero for readers who are ready for a more expansive view of the world than that offered by Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series. The six chapters in this series debut show us a kid who uses his imagination and intelligence, as well as his voluminous energy, to write his homework on cheese slices, adhere his sleeping bag to the ceiling with a combination of peanut butter and ketchup, and help little neighbor Samantha escape her bullying big brother’s wrath over a lost radio-controlled car. Interspersed among the chapters are creative, helpful hints from Ricky about how to tidy your room, as well as his 101 recipes utilizing canned cheese. Illustrated with action-filled cartoon illustrations, the text also includes wry twists on ecofriendly advice. Readers will easily conclude that Ricky is awesome! Grades 2-4. --Francisca Goldsmith Writer-illustrator MICHAEL REX has made his mark on the kids book industry with New York Times bestselling picture book parodies like Goodnight Goon and The Runaway Mummy, graphic novels like Fangbone! Third-Grade Barbarian, and with an appearance on Donald Trump's The Celebrity Apprentice. What makes Icky Ricky so icky? Well, there was this time, for example . . . Chapter #1 HOMEWORK CHEESE and THE BOOGER BUBBLE FREAKOUT     Starring THE NOT-SO-SAFE WATERMELON BIKE HELMET!      Yesterday, Gus came over to my house and wanted to go bike riding. I couldn't find my bike helmet. So instead of wasting time looking for it, I decided to make a helmet.      I brought a watermelon from the kitchen out to the front steps. I cut it in half with a plastic knife because I'm not allowed to use real knives and that took forever. Then I scooped out all of the insides. I put the watermelon on my head. It looked really cool. I had an awesome bike helmet, even though it was all drippy and stuff. Then Gus wanted a watermelon helmet, too. So we made his from the other half of the watermelon.      We didn't know if the helmets were safe for bike riding, so we tested them. We dropped things on them, like a book, splop! And a shoe, clomp! And a wrench, blonk! And then a really big book, kasplop! Then we did one more test. We ran into a wall as hard as we could.      Wham!      Splop! The helmets cracked, and the juices and gunk ran all over our faces. We couldn't go bike riding. But all of that testing had made us hungry. We went back to the steps and scraped all of the watermelon insides into a bowl. But there were ants in it now, and a leaf and a stick. I don't eat ants. (It's not fair to them.) We let the ants have the watermelon, and we picked out the seeds.      We decided to have a watermelon seed-spitting contest.