Planet Tad

Some small, incidental bits of violence: Tad describes the action in a couple of the video games he plays, some of which involve fighting, capturing, etc. At school he learns about the Donner Party -- pioneers in California who turned to cannibalism when they ran out of food -- and muses about whether they cooked the people they ate and how they decided whom to eat first. There's also a pet-hamster obstacle course that goes wrong.

Tad sees another boy put his arm around a girl he likes. Boys and girls talk about which students are cute. There's also a part where Tad's family visits the zoo, and Tad jokes about why they call part of it the Children's Zoo, observing, "It's not like the rest of the zoo is the Adult Zoo, where the bears swear and the giraffes smoke and the chimps give out lap dances."

A couple of allusions to bad language, though no profanity technically appears in the book: Tad explains that his mother won't let him choose his own clothing because Tad once bought himself a "Nucking Futs" T-shirt. He also talks about why they call part of the zoo the Children's Zoo, observing, "It's not like the rest of the zoo is the Adult Zoo, where the bears swear and the giraffes smoke and the chimps give out lap dances."

None of the characters uses cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol, but at one point after Tad's family visits the zoo, Tad jokes about why they call part of it the Children's Zoo, observing, "It's not like the rest of the zoo is the Adult Zoo, where the bears swear and the giraffes smoke and the chimps give out lap dances."

Parents need to know that Planet Tad is written in the form of a blog from the point of view of a middle school boy. There aren't many words or situations that aren't appropriate for middle-grade readers, but the book is heavy on consumer product and media references. The tone and format of Planet Tad is inescapably similar to Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, with lots of funny moments but not necessarily the kind of characters parents hope their kids will imitate. Author Tim Carvell is the Emmy Award-winning head writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, who since 2005 has written the "Planet Tad" column for MAD Magazine.