Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that parents are portrayed poorly here. Kaline's father, who abandons the family and doesn't communicate until the end, is obsessive. His mother is distant, uncommunicative, inept at performing the most basic functions of daily existence, and she doesn't believe her child when he tries to tell her about being bullied and robbed.
Families who read this book could discuss Kaline's bizarre behavior. Is he psychologically troubled? Obsessive like his father? Autistic? Why doesn't the author tell us? Or is she just trying to be funny?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
The author tries VERY HARD to be charming and funny, but she's NOT VERY GOOD at it, so what she ends up with is simply IRRITATING and WEIRD (and apparently she thinks that narrating with frequent ALL CAPS is cute -- it isn't). In her attempt to make her characters humorously eccentric and quirky she ends up, apparently accidentally, delineating a family that seems more disabled than eccentric: a father who clearly suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, a mother who is pathologically incapable of dealing with ordinary life, and a main character who seems borderline autistic.
Further, she attempts to use the father's OCD tendencies to make him less sympathetic than the mother, but accomplishes the opposite. Readers, who will understand clearly why he left, may be forgiven for hoping that when he returns he will take Kaline away to live with him. That is, if they care at all, for the characters are so off-putting that there's little actual emotional involvement. Even Kaline's eventual solution to the bully problem -- he stands up to them by lying about his nonexistent older brothers and they slink away, abashed, to pick on someone else -- seems forced. Even more so when Kaline's mother bursts into the classroom yelling and threatening the 8-year-old bullies with the police and physical harm. Humor and charm require a light and natural touch (see the Other Choices section), but when troweled on artlessly the effort shows, and they become simply painful and annoying.
From The Book
He was getting better with fractions. For instance, he understood that the slashy line in the middle went this way: -- . Kaline hummed, scratched the top of his head, waved his arms above his head as if he were at a baseball game. HISTORY, however, was still a huge problem and who knew what was going to happen in the third grade. His parents had made a HUGE mistake by starting him in school a year early because of where his birthday fell, and also because he had been a WHIZ KID in day care. AHEM. It turned out that being the smartest BABY didn't matter all that much, did it? At the end of second grade he was asked what year our country had been founded and in his mind he saw the warriors, the trees, the flying squirrels, and he wrote: 1927. He looked at it. He changed it to 1289. Then suddenly he was overcome with the idea that there might be a year that began with "5," like "in the year 562," and he had to put his head down on his desk and pretend to snore.
Plot Summary:
Kaline's father is obsessively orderly, and his mother is disorganized and forgetful. Perhaps inevitably, his father leaves the family, so Kaline, with no help from his mother forthcoming, is left to deal with his scattered home life, and bullies at school, by dreaming up imaginary older brothers and a giant tree house where they live with 100 puppies.
Related Books:
Other Books by Haven Kimmel:
Orville: A Dog Story
How to Do Quirky Charm and Humor Right:
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
Jimmy, the Pickpocket of the Palace by Donna Jo Napoli
Meet Calliope Day by Charles Haddad
In Aunt Lucy's Kitchen by Cynthia Rylant
The Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods by Ann Cameron
The Exiles in Love by Hilary McKay
The Amber Cat by Hilary McKay
Judy Moody was in a mood. Not a good mood. A bad mood. by Megan McDonald
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
Nicholas by René Goscinny
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Thumb on a Diamond by Ken Roberts
Related Web sites:
Author's Site
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