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Scholastic Inc., Copyright 2000, 180 Pages
ISBN: 0-39-29484-3
Read: March, 2011 (at age 32)
First time read.
If you haven’t read it:
This book is a teenage comi-drama. I’m way off of the intended audience for this
book – it’s aimed at younger teens and pre-teens. It’s pretty short, it was cute, and I imagine
that it would go over well with the expected audience.
From the back cover:
“I knew Old Shep was going to die before I started
Page one,” I said.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mr. Fogelman
snapped. “How?”
I shrugged. “Because the dog always dies. Go to the library and pick out a book with an
award sticker and a dog on the cover.
Trust me, that dog is going down.”
“Not true!” stormed the teacher.
“Well,” I challenged, what happened
to Old Yeller?”
“Oh, all right,” he admitted. “So
Old Yeller died.”
“What about Sounder?” piped up Joey
Quick.
“And Bristle Face,” added Mike
“Feather” Wrigley, one of my football teammates.
“Don’t forget Where the Red Fern
Grows,” I put in. “The double whammy
– two dogs die in that one.”
“You’ve made your point,” growled
Mr. Fogelman. “And now I’m going to make
mine. I expect a proper review. And you’re going to give it to me – during
detention!”
The back cover is a pull out from about
page 5. It pretty much gives the
setting, introduces a bunch of the characters, and sets the tone of the book. Not bad for a half-page of dialogue – even if
the dialogue tags are a bit much. I
didn’t notice them while I was reading, but in typing them out… a bit much.
Reactions (spoilers!)
Characters:
The author has a gift for, not so much
describing his characters, as with a line or two, evoking someone that you know
or knew, and then leaving it at that. As
a result, the supporting cast seemed well-developed. I was a bit less excited about the main four
characters. We spent a bunch of time in
their heads, and as a result, a couple of the main characters (Mr. Fogelman,
Trudi Davis, and Wallace Wallace) didn’t seem so much like real people to me.
Rachel wasn’t so bad.
Premise:
What would happen when a quirky football
“star” gets stuck with the drama club doing a play adaptation of a book that he
hates? That’s the question asked here,
and there’s all kinds of room for comedy in that set up.
Setting:
The setting was some Jr. High school in the
states – here in Canada
Plot:
The plot was kind of madcap comedy, and a
summary doesn’t so much do it justice.
About the best that I can do is take the premise, and say “hijinks
ensue”.
Readability:
I have a bit of a complaint here – the book
was told first-person, through four viewpoints.
I think that’s pretty ambitious for the target audience in the first
place, but I was catching myself flipping back to the chapter headings to see
whose head I was in a few pages along.
The character voices just weren’t that different, and that’s a major
failing for this style of book. The
pacing was great, and the whole book snapped right along, so that’s about my
only gripe.
Overall:
Good.
It was a fun quick read, exactly as I expected. Which is kind of a surprise, as a lot of
elementary-aged books don’t do so well on re-read 20 years later. The first Korman that I read, This Can't
Be Happening at Macdonald Hall, I read in about grade two, and the last one
I read, Bugs Potter LIVE at Nickaninny, was sometime around grade 8 –
right about in the target audience for those books. I loved them then, and when I saw this one at a garage sale for a buck or
so, and I thought that I’d pick it up and see how I'd like it from a bit older perspective. A fair bit, as it turns out. I’ll keep it around for when my boys are old
enough.
Rating: 4
Other Opinions:
I found quite a few reviews, but none that I found particularly interesting. Let me know if you find a good one!
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