CURIOUS AVENUE by Tom Toles (Andrews...

CURIOUS AVENUE by Tom Toles (Andrews & McMeel: $8.95; 128 pp., paperback original). Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Toles ranks among the country’s most interesting young political cartoonists; unfortunately “Curious Avenue” lacks the wit and originality of his editorial work. Toles is obviously striving for a postmodern version of “Peanuts,” but his standard cast of self-consciously precocious children isn’t very funny. The simple drawing style that makes his caricatures so effective lacks the charm needed to make the regular characters appealing.