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The Odd Squad: Bully Bait by Michael Fry. February 12, 2013. Disney-Hyperion. 224 pages. ISBN: 9781423169246Cartoonist Michael Fry, who is best known for his comic strips,
Committed and
Over the Hedge, enters the world of middle grade fiction with the first book in his new Odd Squad series, entitled
Bully Bait. Nick, the shortest kid in his seventh grade class, has gotten pretty used to being thrown into lockers, but he doesn’t like it, and he is definitely not interested in making himself a bigger target by joining a school club. Unfortunately, Nick’s guidance counselor thinks he needs a place to belong, so she signs him up to work with two other misfits, Molly and Karl, on safety patrol. Though they all agree that membership in this club is lame, they do become friends in spite of themselves. Suddenly, when it’s not one, but three against the world, it becomes much easier to face the bullies and attempt to bring them down.
Bully Bait is a fast-paced, funny novel with short chapters and lots of illustrations. Though the subject matter isn’t especially cheerful, the sarcasm and deadpan humor provide a lot of laughs. The characters are quirky in interesting ways. The janitor, Mr. Dupree, who looks out for Nick and provides him with cryptic advice about taking on bullies, is among my favorite adults in the book. Even the villain of the story, a boy named Roy, is a well-rounded character with his own softer side. The illustrations break up the text and also provide diagrams and other visual information that connect with what is happening in the story. Nick provides doodles showing such important skills as how to shrug, and various lists, including the 5 reasons he doesn’t like other kids. The cartoons are just as much a part of the story as the text, and they provide further insight into Nick’s character in a very accessible way.
Bully Bait is a much-needed funnier alternative to the
Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Unlike Greg Heffley, Nick is a true “wimpy kid” - a middle school underdog who can’t seem to find his place - and though he makes mistakes in the story and sometimes underestimates his new friends, he always has good intentions at heart. Nick and the rest of the Odd Squad also remind me a lot of the girls in the
Nerd Girls and
Snob Squad books. While girls are probably the most likely readers of those series, Odd Squad looks like it will appeal to either gender. It’s also worth noting that this series is similar in style and substance to the middle grade novels of another well-known cartoonist,
Jim Benton. If only Fry’s Nick went to school with Benton’s Jamie - that would be a match made in middle school heaven!
The plot of
Bully Bait isn’t a new story, but it’s still a good one. Promote it to Wimpy Kid fans and I have no doubt that copies will fly off the shelves of your library or bookstore!
I received a digital ARC of Bully Bait from Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley. For more about this book, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.
By:
Katie,
on 11/29/2012
Blog:
Secrets & Sharing Soda
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source: public library,
published 2012,
cybils 2012,
level: easy readers,
author: mo willems,
read 2012,
publisher: disney hyperion,
feature: easy reader radar,
series: elephant and piggie,
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Listen to my Trumpet. by Mo Willems. February 7, 2012 Hyperion. 64 pages. ISBN: 9781423154044Piggie has a trumpet, and she wants to play for Gerald. The only problem is, she’s not very good. How will she react when Gerald tells her what she plays is far from music?
I will always think the Elephant and Piggie series, as a whole, is brilliant. Only Mo Willems could bring such joy out of such simple lines on a plain white page. Some of the books in the series have been truly exceptional - especially
There is a Bird on Your Head,
My Friend is Sad, and
We Are in a Book. Last year’s additions to the series started feeling a bit forced to me, and I started thinking it might be time for Willems to pack it in and move onto something else.
Listen to My Trumpet has once again started me thinking that way.
This book has a great punchline, which I enjoyed, but getting there is very tedious. For pages upon pages, basically all the reader gets to do is read various onomatopoetic words interspersed with Gerald’s grumblings and Piggie’s excited pronouncements about her talent. The artwork doesn’t seem as polished as it did in earlier books, and even the relationship between the two main characters themselves doesn’t seem as engaging. I think all series reach a point where they just get repetitive and nothing new really happens, and that has happened for me with Elephant & Piggie. Kids continue to love them, and I will continue to recommend them to families with new readers, but if Mo Willems were to end this series soon and try something new, I’d truly be all for it.
I borrowed Listen to my Trumpet from my local public library.
For more about this book, visit
Goodreads and
Worldcat.
NOTE: This book was nominated by Adam Shaffer (@MrShafferTMCE) for the 2012 Cybils Awards in the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Book category. I am a first-round panelist in this category, but this review reflects my opinions only, not those of any other panelist, or the panel as a whole. Thanks!
Nerd Girls: A Catastrophe of Nerdish Proportions. by Alan Lawrence Sitomer. July 31, 2012. Disney-Hyperion. 272 pages. ISBN: 9781423139973
In this sequel to
Nerd Girls: Rise of the Dorkasaurus, Maureen, Beanpole, and Q, collectively known as the Nerd Girls, are still fighting pretty constantly with the Threepees, Kiki, Brittany-Brattany, and Sofes. The two groups’ pranks on each other escalate so severely, the principal finally steps in to put an end to their bitter rivalry. His solution? The two groups must join as one team and compete in the Academic Septathlon.
As in the first book, Maureen’s voice is very strong in this second novel, but she is much more likable this time around. Though she still occasionally puts herself down over her weight, she is more confident in herself and more willing to take on the cruel popular girls instead of just backing down and letting them win. I also thought her affection for Q and Beanpole was much more evident this time around, especially when Q nearly lets her medical issues get the best of her. Interestingly, Beanpole became a favorite for me in this novel as well, especially when it begins to look like she and Sofes will become friends during their preparations for the septathlon. In fact, Sofes, Brittany, and Kiki all seem to become more human in this book. They’ll never be angels, but Sitomer does a nice job of letting the reader see at list a hint of who the girls are beneath their nasty attitudes.
Another thing that struck me about this book is how funny it is. I don’t remember laughing as much during the first book, but there are a lot of great one-liners and comic moments in the sequel. I especially like the predictably klutzy moves Beanpole makes at various points throughout the book. They provide nice comic relief as well as a great model for kids to learn how to laugh at themselves. The entire story is actually a great lesson in self-acceptance and confidence, but it doesn’t present itself in a preach way, so kids will be drawn to it, not repelled.
All in all, this is a great follow-up to
Rise of the Dorkasaurus and fans of the first book will eagerly devour it. Both Nerd Girls books are great for kids who like Dork Diaries, Popularity Papers, Dear Dumb Diary, and The Snob Squad. Look for
A Catastrophe of Nerdish Proportions in bookstores on July 31, 2012.
I received a digital ARC of A Catastrophe of Nerdish Proportions from Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley.
The Classroom: The Epic Documentary of a Not-Yet-Epic Kid. by Robin Mellom. June 19, 2012. Disney-Hyperion. 288 pages. ISBN: 9781423150633School often poses problems for worrywart Trevor Jones, but he’s always had his best friend Libby Gardner to save him from disaster. Therefore, it’s a huge shock when Libby arrives to the bus stop on the first day of middle school and immediately tells Trevor they can’t be “friend friends” anymore because she thinks they need to branch out. It gets even worse when Libby explains that Trevor has until the end of the first day of school to find a date to the Fall Dance - without any of her usual expert guidance.
There are a lot of books out there about the first day of middle school, but
The Classroom is unique for two reasons. One is that the story is told in a documentary format, with breaks between chapters for interviews with the main characters. Characters’ pictures are shown, along with transcripts of what they have told the cameraman about their day at school, giving insight into the worries and motives of kids other than Trevor. I won’t say this is a successful gimmick all the time, but it’s a welcome change from the diary format that seems to be taking over lately. The documentary format is still visually appealing but it also takes a different approach, which makes the book stand out.
The second reason this book is unique among the scores of middle school books available is that it’s a friendship story from the male point of view. We have other middle school books about boys, of course -
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, James Patterson’s new series, the Big Nate books - but somehow those books don’t focus quite as strongly on the changes in friendships that occur when middle school begins. A lot of attention is paid to girls losing their friends to the popular crowd, but Trevor is the first boy I’ve seen go through that in a work of fiction, and it was so completely refreshing to see that. I’m sure boys fall victim to shifting cliques as much as girls do, and this book really validates that experience.
I think the best term I could use to describe
The Classroom is “tween soap opera.” This book reads like a cleaner version of DeGrassi, and it has a lot of great characters who would lend themselves easily to an animated cartoon series. It was fun to keep track of each characters’ trajectory throughout that first day of school, and the big cast of characters captured that crowded, chaotic environment of middle school hallways so well. The story itself unravels a litle bit at he end because the resolution comes so easily after all of Trevor’s turmoil, but it was still worth the ride it took to get there.
Recommend
The Classroom to true wimpy kids who are fed up with Greg Heffley, and to fans of
The Fourth Stall,
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda,
The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, and the Amelia Rules graphic novels.
I received a digital ARC of The Classroom from my local public library.
For more about this book, visit Goodreads and
0 Comments on Review: The Classroom by Robin Mellom (ARC) as of 1/1/1900
The Go-For-Gold Gymnasts: Winning Team. by Dominique Moceanu and Alicia Thompson. April 17, 2012. Disney-Hyperion. 240 pages. ISBN: 9781423136330
Spirited prankster Brittany (Britt) Morgan is also a skilled gymnast. When she moves to a new town to start training at a bigger and better gym, she finds it difficult to adjust to the serious attitude, intense competition, and unfriendly faces of her new gymnastics team. Not only does she offend one of the girls by performing a move the other girl has not yet mastered, she also uncovers an eating disorder, makes a girl cry when trying to prank her, and finds herself struggling to impress her new coach.
I am usually not crazy about children’s books written by celebrities, but there is something appealing about a book about a gymnastics team written by an Olympic gymnast. It’s clear from early on in Britt’s story that Dominique Moceanu has lived many of these experiences firsthand. The details surrounding the gym, the various moves the girls perform, and even the tension between the girls also come across as authentic, and the details, especially, got me interested in the world of gymnastics, and therefore, in Britt’s story.
The plot wasn’t the most exciting, and included some cliches. If a book involves gymnastics, figure skating, or dancing, I always expect an eating disorder to show up, and that story line crops up almost immediately. I’ve also seen sports rivalries between girls in other books I’ve reviewed, such as
McKenna (which is also about a gymnast), and
Faith and the Camp Snob. It was very easy to predict what would happen between Britt and the other girls because cattiness among girls is such a common go-to tween plot.
I think a more skilled author might tell a more interesting story, but Moceanu has the unique advantage of having been an Olympic gymnast, so for girls who are aspiring gymnasts themselves, her perspective and knowledge of particular details will be the draw, not the storytelling. I did wish for some more character development, and some more information about Britt’s previous life and her friendship with her best friend, Dionne, but since this is apparently the first book in a series, I have a feeling some of those things might be revealed in later volumes.
All in all, I think
Winning Team accomplishes what it sets out to do. It provides girls interested in competitive gymnastics with a fictionalized peek into that world. I’m not sure girls without this interest would be as excited about the story, but Britt is an engaging enough character that any reader will latch onto her and follow her story to find out what happens.
Winning Team will be published tomorrow, April 17, 2012, along with the second book of the series, entitled
Balancing Act. Two more titles,
Unexpected Twist and
Reaching High, will be published this June.
I received a digital ARC of Winning Team from Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley.
For more about this book, visit
0 Comments on Review: The Go-For-Gold Gymnasts: Winning Team by Dominique Moceanu and Alicia Thompson (ARC) as of 1/1/1900
I agree: not exactly new territory, but sharper drawn characters and more humor than is typical for the genre. Enjoyed a quick skim as an adult. Plan to give a couple of copies to middle-school types. As a former bookstore owner, I'd say it's worth stocking.Jeff33