During St. Polonius-on-the-Fjord’s annual Founder’s Day event, everyone over 12 years, 4 months, 6 days old must eat a slice of bear liver in honor of the North Sea village’s long-ago founders, who survived a cold winter after eating bear liver and falling asleep until spring. Twelve-year-old Jean, participating for the first time, spits her piece out when no one is looking. Hours later, every adult and teenager in town falls into a sleep from which no one can wake them—not a typical Founder’s Day occurrence despite the long-ago miracle. The town charter says children must do their parents’ jobs if the adults are incapacitated, so the kids step up. Jean is convinced the mayor’s son, Magnus, is up to no good when he announces plans to carry out the election to decide whether the town will build a thistleberry processing plant—something sure to change St. Polonius forever. Along with her younger brother, Micah, best friend Katrin (giving cutting edge haircuts at her mom’s salon), 8-year-old Axel (operating his dad’s snowplow), and Isara, who’s keeping everyone fed at his immigrant parents’ Thai restaurant, she investigates. Magnus, in turn, passes restrictive laws and deputizes other kids to keep Jean and her friends in check. The silliness is not without substance in this novel that takes political machinations to a not-unrecognizable extreme, but it’s the story’s over-the-top charm that wins the day. (Ages 7-10)