 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Meanwhile
- By Jason Shiga
- Genre: Adventure
Common Sense Media says
Quirky, inventive, and absorbing choose-your-own adventure.
Parents say
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this fun and action-packed comic book contains a deadly invention: the Killitron 2000, Professor K's untested doomsday device. A few of the choose-your-own path stories end with Jimmy setting off the Killitron 2000 which results in the entire world being killed. No blood/guts are shown, but people are shown seemingly passed out on the ground. Sometimes Jimmy has the chance to try and reset the Killitron 2000 by using Professor K's time machine and sometimes the story ends with the death of everyone on Earth.
What's the story?
With just one choice -- chocolate or vanilla ice cream -- Jimmy is thrust into a world of puzzles, adventures, and inventions. After Jimmy picks a flavor he meets
Professor K, who introduces Jimmy to his three unbelievable inventions: the Killitron 2000, an untested doomsday device;
a time travelling machine that only goes back seven years in time; and
SQUID, which transfers memories from one brain to another. As readers
make choices for Jimmy -- sometimes as mundane as deciding whether or not to look in a
medicine cabinet -- Jimmy moves along in many different stories
where he uses all three of Professor K's inventions to sometimes disastrous,
sometimes happy results.
Is it any good?
Through an inventive series of tabs and colored tubes, readers make their choices and skip all over the 80-page book -- 3,856 story combinations in all! Kids will get hooked both by the novel delivery of the "choose your own adventure" idea and the engaging series of story combinations. The colorful and comical illustrations make it an even bigger draw -- the perfect take-along on long trips.
The illustrations by Jason Shiga are endearing and quirky all at the same time. Beautiful and colorful, they really bring the exciting adventures to life. Also, when Jimmy goes to different places and time periods they are colored differently -- a great way to show readers the change in scenery and time.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about Professor K's inventions. Which invention would you most like to try out if you were Jimmy: the Killitron 2000, the Time Machine or the SQUID?
On the cover of the book, it says that there are 3,856 story
possibilities! How is that possible? Did you get close to reading that many of the stories? What was your favorite story and ending?Create your own "choose your own adventure"-type story. What scenarios would make your readers go back to the beginning? Which would be the happy endings?
If you were in Jimmy's position, would you have chosen chocolate or vanilla ice cream?
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- Teens & kids
Kid, 12 years old
February 21, 2011
AGE
A good story for unsure readers!
I wasn't a super big fan of the book, but my eight-year-old sister loved it. To read the story you follow these lines around, according to what you choose. The story is very good overall, but there are many, many, endings, and most of them end with at least one person getting killed. Kids will learn about the positive and negative impacts of their choices as they choose what Jimmy will do next. I think this is a good choice for kids who aren't super sure they like reading, as this is a fun and educational intro to reading for fun. Boys will likely enjoy this more than girls, there being next to no girl characters AT ALL, and with all the destructive weaponry.
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Kid, 10 years old
February 2, 2011
AGE
i love it so much for my child
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AGE
Don't Bother
This book was frustrating and confusing for me.
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AGE
boon's rating
it was an appropriate book, and i liked it. the only reason why i gave this 13 and up was because you have to follow little tubes around the book. i am eleven years old and this book confused me. also there is an ice cream man who has an axe, and a machine called a killitron. in some parts of the book people die from the killitron. mostly appropriate, except for the confusing tubes.
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Kid, 9 years old
July 20, 2011
AGE
stressful
I think that you should solve/find out the answer before giving your
child the book because there is a 1/3,856 chance they
will get the best way. I had to actually look through the book because I gave up because I couldn't find the answer and no answer was written.
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Kid, 8 years old
April 24, 2012
AGE
Really good
The book is good, but it's hard to find the happy ending. I was also confused about the vanilla choice and if it's happy or sad. The book had some violence, like everyone in the world dying or weapons, but other than that, the book is really good.
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| Author: | Jason Shiga |
| Illustrator: | Jason Shiga |
| Book type: | Fiction |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Publisher: | Amulet Books |
| Publication date: | March 1, 2010 |
| Number of pages: | 80 |
| Hardcover price: | $15.95 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 8 - 12 |
| Read aloud: | 8 |
| Read alone: | 8 |
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