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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J Fic Elliott, D. 2001 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"The wacky plot and quirky details . . . will appeal to young and reluctant readers who like their fiction light and offbeat."-- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
Roscoe Wizzle used to be a normal ten-year-old kid. But that was before a sign reading COMING SOON! GUSSY'S! sprang up in a vacant lot. A sign showing Gussy Gorilla eating a Jungle Drum-just about the biggest hamburger in the world. Roscoe Wizzle, hamburger fan, was a normal kid all right . . . until he started turning into a bug! David Elliott's debut novel takes a hilarious and surreal look at what can happen when you get too much of a good thing.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-When a well-known hamburger chain establishes a franchise in Roseville, 10-year-old Roscoe Wizzle is ecstatic, for his culinarily-impaired parents begin sending him to the fast-food restaurant every night for dinner. Eventually, though, his happiness is destroyed when he realizes he is beginning to resemble a bug. It turns out that mutant insects are getting into the meat-grinder at Gussy's, turning habitual eaters of the burgers into bugs, a fact that the nefarious owners try to hide by kidnapping the victims. Luckily, the villains' dastardly deeds, past and present, are revealed and punished, the children de-transmogrify, and Roscoe's parents learn to cook. The wacky plot and quirky details, reminiscent of Daniel Pinkwater's work, will appeal to young and reluctant readers who like their fiction light and offbeat. The pace is quick, the tone is humorous, and if most of the characters are painted with a very broad and shallow brush and the plot requires a strenuous suspension of disbelief, kids will be too busy relishing the adventure to care.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A fourth grader leads a fairly ordinary life until strange things start happening, and he finds himself undergoing a Kafka-esque metamorphosis. "Colorful plot twists combine with a sassy first-person narration and snappy dialogue to skew the proceedings a few thoroughly enjoyable degrees off normal," PW wrote. Ages 7-10. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
In this Pinkwateresque tale, ten-year-old Roscoe eats a hamburger at Gussy's, a fast food chain, every night. When he begins to turn into an insect, he realizes that several missing kids in his town also began to look like insects shortly before they disappeared. The story features some amusing hyperbolic humor, but the one-noted, over-the-top characterizations and superficial plot make this a slight offering. From HORN BOOK Fall 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The moral of this surreal episode would run something like this: never patronize a fast-food restaurant built where giant mutant bugs can crawl into the meat grinder. Young Roscoe learns this disgusting lesson almost too late when, after six months of nightly Gussys Jungle Drum burgers, he suddenly discovers that hes beginning to resemble a praying mantis. Luckily, and despite the best efforts of Gussys CEO and cohorts to hush the whole thing up, Roscoes genius best friend Kinshasa Rosa Parks Boomer winkles out the cause. Also luckily, once Roscoe modifies his diet, the changes reverse. Elliott (Cool Crazy Crickets, 2000, etc.) is far from the first to take on a boy-into-bug premise, and though he introduces a memorably quirky cast, he doesnt give it much to do besides solve the mystery of why this is happening to Roscoe and others. The high gross-out factor will draw some readers, but theyll only find characters in search of a story. (Fiction. 10-12)