First, full disclosure. I didn’t choose my review book this month by sheer happenstance. Author Eric Luper and I were both at a conference in Vermont this winter and managed to spend three days never seeing each other. That, plus our passing online acquaintance, had something to do with it, and I’d go into details, but this is already in danger of getting too boring.
Bottom line: while I may know-ish Eric, I would not have chosen to review a book I didn’t like. A lot. And so I present my take of Eric’s first middle grade novel, Jeremy Bender vs. The Cupcake Cadets.
The guts of our story begins when Jeremy and his best friend Slater, in the midst of trying to do a good thing (and of course, benefit from that), manage to severely damage Jeremy’s dad’s prized antique Chris-Craft motorboat. The good news: it’s winter and his dad won’t know a thing if they can earn $470 to professionally fix the boat. The better news: winning the Windjammer Whirl, a model sailboat contest, would earn them $500. All they have to do is dress like girls, pass themselves off as members of the Cupcake Cadets, sell cupcakes, earn badges, and design and sail a winning boat. Their only competition? A bunch of girls. Easy, right?
And thus begins a full-length, hysterical romp through the world and minds of two middle school boys. When I wasn’t smiling, I was laughing. And when I wasn’t laughing, I was fully worrying about these boys and the corners they continued to paint themselves into ... until they made me laugh again.
And if you’re a girl, don’t let the boy name on the cover fool you. You may laugh even harder than your male friends ... just don’t tell the guys.
WIN!
Oh ... and while I’m not offering a $500 prize, I am giving you a chance to win a copy of Jeremy Bender vs. The Cupcake Cadets. There will be 2 winners (and how I managed to own two copies is another boring story which I won’t bother to tell).There’s a number of ways to enter:
1.Comment below.
2. Comment at the Smack Dab in the Middle blog where there’s also a Non-Standard, Eleven-Question (including speed round) interview with Eric Luper.
3. Comment on my Facebook page.
4. Shoot me a tweet (@jodyfeldman).
And to make things more complicated, you’ll receive ...
One (1) entry for a simple, “Hey there, put my name in the hat.”
Two (2) entries if you relate an embarrassing middle school story
Three (3) entries if you can tell that story in Tweet fashion – 140 characters or less
Winners will be chosen by 7/20/2011. Any anonymous entries will count, but if I can’t easily find you, your copy will be donated to a worthy library or school.
This review is part of Barrie Summy’s major-league first-Wednesday-of-each-month review extravaganza which recently received a shout-out on the School Library Journal site.
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