By the Grace of Todd by Louise Galveston (review)

Todd’s reluctance to pick up his dirty laundry has led to the spontaneous generation of a civilization of ant-sized people on his fungus-encrusted sock who call themselves Toddlians and revere sixth-grader Todd as their god. After Max, the most popular and powerful kid at school, chooses Todd to be his science-project partner, Todd accidentally reveals the Toddlians’ existence to him; Max then decides their science project should be to train the Toddlians to perform in a circus, cruelly working them for days and bargaining Toddlians off as slaves to his cronies. Todd tacitly accedes, hoping to stay popular and avoid bullying, until the gumption of some Toddlians escaping from Max’s lackeys and the threat of an exploitative performance at a fair spur Todd into confronting Max. Todd’s troubles with family, school, and friends are pretty standard middle-school fare, but the generosity toward Todd as a character through his sloppiness and self-absorption is refreshing, and the zany science fiction/fantasy premise is skillfully executed. The Toddlians, too, are entertaining, with their preference for munching on “Sweat à la Todd Bod” and their English garnered from watching Downton Abbey, John Wayne movies, and reality TV (“Ashley [a contestant on The Bachelorette] should not marry Jordan. … Will you please warn her? … Save Ashley! Save Ashley!”). The gratifying conclusion sees the Toddlians to safety, and an epilogue that reveals that the whole story has been recounted by an elder of Toddlandia suggests that the Toddlians might return for future adventures, sure to be welcome news to the fans of both the smart and the gross that will take to this one.