A computer game becomes a little too interactive for Jiggy McCue and buds in this all-out, innuendo-laden farce. Jiggy and neighbor Angie discover the down side of playing “Toilet of Life” on the Web when they wake the next morning with switched bodies. No need to imagine the possibilities for comedy, Lawrence (The Killer Underpants, p. 503, etc.) covers most of them, putting Jiggy-as-Angie through a range of indignities, including having to face spinach lasagna (Angie’s favorite), and the unwanted attentions of classmate Ralph “Eejit” Atkins. Angie-as-Jiggy gets not only a “free extra attachment” to cope with, but a new hormonal mix that amplifies the effects of her already-bad temper. With no opportunity for pranks or double entendres lost, this will have readers rolling on the floor from Jiggy’s opening discovery of a mountainous facial pimple (“ . . . the one bright spot of my day”) to the final twist, in which Angie and Jiggy recover their own corpora, only to discover that Angie’s stepbrother Pete has switched with aptly named Stallone the cat. Fans of Mary Rodgers’s Freaky Friday (1972) and Summer Switch (1982), as well as readers who find those classics a bit creaky in the joints, won’t be able to put this down. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-525-46983-4
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002
PLB 0-531-33203-9 A silly, but ultimately satisfying story of wish-fulfillment, in which Sonenklar (My Own Worst Enemy, p. 727, etc.) perfectly captures a middle grader’s obsession with fantasy heroes. Small for his age, often bullied, new kid Howard is thrilled when he wins a contest to attend a taping of his favorite TV show, “Mighty Boy.” Even though he knows that Mighty Boy is played by an actor, Howard is nevertheless shocked to find that the actor has none of the hero’s qualities. When the two boys get lost in the woods, Howard’s camping skills, learned from his father entirely offstage, save the day. Sonenklar is deft in limning Howard’s preoccupation with Mighty Boy: he dreams about him at night, daydreams during class, and, even in the presence of the (and initially not very nice) boy, can’t quite grasp the idea that none of it is real. The dangerous way Howard deals with the bully when he returns to school (he smacks a beehive so that the bees attack his tormentor) lacks any sort of warning; otherwise this is a funny and enjoyable novel. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30203-2
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
A girl’s interest in family history overlaps a coming-of-age story about her vestigial understanding of her mother after death, and her own awareness of self and place in the world. Junior high-school student Carrie Schmidt identifies strongly with the missing girls of 1967’s headlines about runaways. Carrie’s mother is dead and she has just moved in with her grandmother, Mutti, who embarrasses her with her foreign accent and ways. Carrie’s ideal is her friend Mona’s mother, a “professional” who dresses properly, smells good, and knows how to set out a table; readers will grasp the mother’s superficiality, even though Carrie, at first, does not. Mutti has terror in her past, and tells Carrie stories of the Jews in WWII Vienna, and of subsequent events in nine concentration camps; these are mined under the premise that Carrie needs stories for “dream” material and her interest in so-called lucid dreaming, a diverting backdrop that deepens the story without overwhelming it. Mutti’s gripping, terrible tales and the return of an old friend who raised Carrie’s mother when she was sent to Scotland at age nine awaken in Carrie a connection to her current family, to her ancestry, and, ultimately, to a stronger sense of self. This uncommon novel from Metzger (Ellen’s Case, 1995, etc.) steps out of the genre of historical fiction to tell a story as significant to contemporary readers as to the inhabitants of the era it evokes. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-670-87777-8
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
