Anna Smudge: Professional Shrink, by MAC
Noir+KidMystery+Evil Villains+Rilly Big Chapter Illustrations+Funny+Kinda Silly=Good Book!
Okay, so I know my scientist husband would be like "that equation makes no sense" but whatever. Sometimes, even though the whole is more than the sum of its parts, you want to name some of the parts anyway.
This book is totally fun. And, even though it has a girl as the main character, it's not too girly. So all you middle grade boys out there (Abe?) wouldn't be all like "eww! girly book! get it away from me!" And the second book in The Professionals is Quenton's. I am very much looking forward to that, as he was my favorite in this book.
It took me a little bit to get into this book at first. You see, I wasn't rollin' with it. I thought "Who does that? That doesn't make sense!" But then I let a healthy "suspension of disbelief" kick in and I had a lot of fun.
This book will speak to middle graders. You know, it reminds me a little bit of that play that I wrote as a High School Freshman. . . where the villain had a badger-hand (instead of a hook or something inanimate). No badger hands in this one, but it's still outrageous fun!
So here comes the best part: along with my Cybils review copy, the publishers sent me some awesome posters. I'm keeping the first one. It's goin' in the bathroom. But if you read the book and want one of the other two, just leave a comment on this post by. . . oh. . . say Thanksgiving, and I'll do a drawing or something and we'll have two poster winners! And you don't have to have already read the book, you can just want the poster.
I had the same reaction. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I let go of expectations and just enjoyed it, I thought that it was a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteI guess reading this will be a test of how middle school like my reading sensibilities are. It does look like fun-- I've put it on my list to read.
ReplyDeleteAnother option for the equation of state for the book is to integrate from page 1 to the end of the book over the fun density, which should give you the total fun found in the book. Also, you could find the absolute amount of fun in specific intervals using this same approach but changing your limits of integration!
ReplyDelete-From the scientist husband
PS - I'm looking forward to having that poster in the bathroom.
I loved this book! A must read for middle schoolers!!!
ReplyDeleteKim Baccellia
I'm putting it on my "to read" list.
ReplyDeleteMichelle T.
School Librarian
Oregon