Russell is a pretty celebrated writer these days for her novel Swamplandia, but this odd tale of a group of semi-delinquent New Jersey boys discovering a scarecrow deep in a city park that resembles a boy they tormented in school is overblown and overwritten. From its awkward title to its conclusion, despite some arresting images, it is much ado about nothing. Especially unconvincing is the voice of the narrator--whom the reader can only assume has grown up to become a professor of literature! ( )