children's graphic novel. This serial should probably be read in order, in quick succession, as the plot continues from one to the next. ( )

Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villain by Jarrett J. Krosoczka is the ninth of the Lunch Lady books. It's school election time and Hector is running. Meanwhile, someone is stealing all the electronics at the school, including the ones kids bring from home, and worse yet, a new superintendent is making drastic budget cuts.

Whenever something went missing in this book I couldn't help but think that it was being put into some master June box. The June box is something teachers at my kids' school keep near their desks to house all the stuff they confiscate from kids. Most of the time parents get these things back the next day but the threat is always there that the things will be kept until the end of the school year. The solution though isn't a giant June box.

My one quibble with this book is that the A and B plots aren't very connected. Usually what Hector and company are doing is directly related to the sleuthing that the Lunch Lady and Betty do. This time, though, Hector's off doing a school election. Meanwhile kids are complaining about the missing stuff. And the Lunch Lady at the teachers are trying to cope with slashed budgets. It's all too much. ( )

A threat to the school appears, which a common theme for this series, where all of the students and staff are realizing that their digital devices are going missing. It is up to the Lunchlady to solve the day, as she always does, by tracking down the thief and driving him out of the school. The relationships between the students and the Lunchlady are positive and supportive. The book focuses mainly on humorous punch lines and solving crime. The pictures are simple, with school bus yellow as the signature color on every page. This book is similar to the Captain Underpants series, with similar silliness paired with crime-fighting. Personally, I found it disappointing to see the many stereotypes throughout the book. The teachers and lunch ladies were all women, while the principal and computer tech were men. Also, the janitor spoke broken English, which insinuates that he may be a minority. In many of the pictures there were very few females. With this said, I was happy to see that the Lunchladay was a strong female lead. ( )

The race is on for a new student council president, and the Breakfast Bunch is rallying for Hector! The competition is already heavy, but the race heats up when school security is at stake: student and staff high-tech gadgets are disappearing left and right. Whoever the culprit is, this is one stealthy thief—and the school is so busy with the election that he gets away with it every time. Luckily some of Lunch Lady's own culinary gadgets have eluded the crook, but will they be enough to catch this sticky-fingered bandit? And will Hector be able to pull off a victory? ( )