What do you do when you’ve always wanted a dog, but your mother gives you a guinea pig instead? In 5th grader Rufus’ case he decides to keep Fido since she annoys his clean freak dad (the reason he can’t have a dog). But then something strange happens. Fido starts acting like a dog.
Guinea Dog (Egmont, 2010) by Patrick Jennings is humorous and a bit bigger than life. Quite the enjoyable read. I know my 9-year-old grandson would love it. (This book is available both in hardback and paperback.)
Be sure and visit Patrick’s website and read his funny bio. There you can also read about his many other books.
P.S. Today, September 15th, Patrick wrote to me and said: “It was just announced today that the book won the Washington State Book Award. :)”
A BIG CONGRATS!
Tag: humor
Cosmic
Grown-upness is truly wasted on grown-ups. At least that’s what 12-year-old Liam thinks. Everyone who sees him thinks he’s an adult because of his height . . . and the stubble. It’s fun when he can use this misunderstanding to his advantage. But now that he’s on this secret mission in a spaceship 239,000 miles from earth as the “adult” chaperone to a group of kids and they’re completely doomed . . . not so much.
Cosmic (Waldon Pond Press, 2008) by Frank Cottrell Boyce is a blast. Any kid who likes space, multiplayer online computer games such as Worlds of Warcraft, or imagining what it’d be like to get to adult things will love this humorous story.
Read more about this British author/screenwriter on the publisher’s site.
The Total Tragedy of a Girl named Hamlet
Hilarious…
Unless you’re Hamlet…
The Total Tragedy of a Girl named Hamlet (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2010) by Erin Dionne is one funny book. Here’s an intro:
It’s the first day of 8th grade and Hamlet wants to be invisible. Her mother, in full Shakespearean regalia, insists on walking Hamlet and her 7-year-old sister to the school office. 7-year-old Desdemona (Dezzie) is a genius who has been homeschooled and can’t go to college yet because she doesn’t have art or music, so here she is at Howard Hoffer Junior High to make up for the deficit. And Hamlet has to escort her from class to class. What could be more embarrassing?
Don’t ask, because it’s going to happen.
On Erin’s website it says “Her books are for teens, tweens, and anyone who survived junior high” and I have to agree after reading her first book and this one.
How to Survive Middle School
How to Survive Middle School (Delacorte, 2010) by Donna Gephart is both humorous and touching.
11-year-old David Greenberg wants to be a superstar talk host like his idol, Jon Stewart. David has top 6 ½ lists that he records on his videos which he posts on you-tube. The start of middle school doesn’t go well when he tells his best friend Elliot, who has been mooning over a girl all summer who put two hearts in his yearbook, that she put two hearts in everyone’s yearbook. Then he meets a new girl named Sophie, who helps his videos go viral by sharing with her homeschool network. Unfortunately, the “today’s acne forecast” on his sister gets him in trouble with her and his dad. Mom has gone awol and he can’t even call her. Then his hamster, the star of his show, dies.
Donna, a winner of the Sid Fleischman award for as if being 12-3/4 isn’t bad enough, my mother is running for president!, has another funny book coming out in spring 2012. See more details on her site.
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (Simon and Schuster, 2009) by Mac Barnett illustrated by Adam Rex is one funny mystery. The story is modeled after the old time kid detective novels, so expect some corn.
12-year-old Steve Brixton is enamored of the old mystery books about the Bailey brothers and himself gets mistaken for a detective by the Librarians (under cover agents) when he checks out a book on quilts at the library. He’s on the run from the police, including Jerk Rick who’s dating Steve’s mom. The only way to prove himself innocent is to solve the case.
Author Mac Barnett bills himself as “writer and strongman-for-hire” on his website. Check out the piano keys for more details.
But wait! There’s more. 
The sequel Brixton Brothers 2: The Ghostwriter Secret came out last fall and is on my to-be-read list. The next in the series, It Happened on a Train, will come out this October.
Illustrator Adam Rex is the author/illustrator of The True Meaning of Smekday. What? You haven’t read it? Learn more here about that title and stuff about Adam on his site where Abraham Superlincoln tells you to “choose wisely.”