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DOUBLE FUDGE

Fudge Hatcher and his friends are back in the fifth installment of Blume’s popular series. Five-year-old Fudge’s newest obsession is money; he wants it so badly he even resorts to printing some of his own. On his first day of school, he finds a new friend, Richie Potter, who is endlessly interesting to Fudge: he’s wealthy and not embarrassed to talk about money the way Fudge’s family is. In order to take away some of the mystique about money, Fudge’s parents plan a family trip to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This does little to stem his interest, but it does allow Fudge’s father to run into a long-lost relative, Howie. This convenient coincidence pushes the narrative away from the story of Fudge and money to a rather unbelievable storyline. Howie’s family is made up of his pregnant wife Eudora, 12-year-old twins Flora and Fauna (also known as “the natural beauties”), and four-year-old Farley Drexel Hatcher, which is also Fudge’s real name. Howie insists on calling Fudge’s father Tubby, a not-so-subtle reference to Mr. Hatcher’s rotund childhood shape. The meandering plot turns into National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when the homeschooling Hawaiian Hatchers invite themselves to stay in the already-crowded apartment shared by Peter, Fudge, baby Tootsie, and their parents. The apartment is strained to the breaking point as the pushy visitors overstay their welcome, invite themselves to Peter’s school, and try everyone’s patience. Too much is going on here, both in the Hatcher household and in Blume’s story. Many of the plot strands are left hanging or are too neatly tied up. There’s the bird who mysteriously loses his power to speak, and the artist whose paintings are made up of baby’s footprints in paint. Add to that the Hawaiian cousins who sing showtunes. A few laughs can not redeem this busy, surprisingly unfunny book. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002

ISBN: 0-525-46926-5

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002

Categories:
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WRECKING BALL

From the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series , Vol. 14

Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.

The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.

When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.

Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Amulet/Abrams

Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019

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GHOSTS

Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...

Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.

Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.

Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016

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