SOLVED. Mid-90s YA/MG - boy in a hotel manners competition, learns to twirl spaghetti with floss and dish soap [s]

[Catie]

Hi! I've got a forgotten book that's been bugging me for ages. It's a middle grade book that I read probably in the mid 90s, and it might have been from one of those Scholastic book subscription programs. It's about a boy who lives in a hotel (I think) with his parents. His mother is a struggling artist with giant hands but she paints these incredibly detailed tiny paintings, where you can use a magnifying glass to see tons of detail in these teeny tiny scenes.

The boy is bored one night and wandering around the hotel, and there's an event going on that's like a cotillion or pageant or decorum competition or something -- basically young kids compete in things like polite eating and dancing(?). One boy is favored to win, but turns out he's sick with strep throat, and his Dance Moms-y parents spy our protagonist in the hallway and grab him and convince him to take their son's place in the competition. They train him to twirl spaghetti using dental floss and dish soap. At the end of the book, his mom paints a scene of the hotel, and you can use a magnifying glass to see the tiny decorum competition inside, etc.

There's a chance that I'm conflating two books here, or something, but I remember so much of this SO CLEARLY and all searching has been for naught. Please help!

[Tab]

Sounds like The Big Bazoohley

Kirkus Review: Sam Kellow has the anxiousness of a child whose parents live large and on the edge. When they arrive in Toronto to sell one of his mother's renowned paintings, they have little money but choose an expensive hotel. Sam just knows something is going to go wrong, and sure enough, the mysterious art collector who had reserved the painting has disappeared. Sam knows the only way out of their trouble is if he can get the Big Bazoohley, life's jackpot, that his father is always talking about. When he is kidnapped by greedy parents who want him to substitute for their son (sick with chicken pox) in the Perfecto Kiddo contest, he thinks he may have found the Big Bazoohley at last.

[Catie]

YES that's it! Thank you so much!