Tom Angleberger

Maxine Zelaster (aka Max) attends seventh grade at Vanguard One Middle School. Students at Vanguard must pass weekly tests in each subject as a mandate of the Federal School Board’s Constant UpGrade program. They must also follow a very strict conduct code or incur discipline tags (dtgs) and citizenship infractions which decrease their cumulative scores. The formidable vice principal (aka robot BARBARA) keeps track of everything. Enter Fuzzy, a “fuzzy” logic robot that is part of the Robot Integration Program. He’s short, wears a funny looking black wig, and dresses in outdated clothes, but he’s a state-of-the-art free thinking robot with artificial intelligence designed to let Fuzzy think, feel, and learn as any other middle school student would. Fuzzy’s first day at the school, he suffers information overload, freezes up, and falls over. Then, with a few tweaks, Fuzzy begins to change. The scientists choose Max as Fuzzy’s guide; they want her to teach Fuzzy everything she knows about surviving middle school. She’s super excited, but the assignment proves detrimental to Max’s standing at the school. Every time she turns around, she incurs another dtag, and, no matter how hard she studies, her test grades plummet. Fuzzy begins to realize that something is fishy about the way BARBARA reports test scores and hands out discipline. He needs to find a way to help Max before she gets kicked out and sent to a remedial school. Max makes a discovery as well. What can she do to save her friend Fuzzy from certain destruction?
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com… (mais)

My 6yo and I agree that this was fun, but not great. She is a strong reader for her age, but struggled with the yak's misspelled dialogue. We were both confused by the empty jar, but figured it out by re-reading from the beginning. We haven't read the Inspector Flytrap books, but that didn't seem to matter. This was just super silly.

The funniest part for us was how the chicks at the mall just want to poop on chairs. My daughter also really liked that the chihuahua was named DJ Funkyfoot for no apparent reason (he's neither a DJ nor funky-footed; he's a stiff, serious butler).

On a slightly more serious note, I liked that the fudge thief was redeemed in the end.… (mais)

I read this in under an hour. I wasn't LOL funny, but it was cute. Though the story is told mainly from the POV of a regular sixth-grader named Tommy, it's really about his eccentric classmate Dwight. Dwight has kind of a crazy [b:Stargirl|22232|Stargirl|Jerry Spinelli|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1195088561s/22232.jpg|963221] thing going on--but, for obvious reasons, he also made me think of Dwight from the TV show The Office, by which I mean he walked the line between likable and creepy. Ultimately, predictably, but happily, he is the hero. Hooray for kooky!

Kind of like [b:The Popularity Papers|7092306|The Popularity Papers Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang|Amy Ignatow|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61bL-uhhQmL._SL75_.jpg|7348690], this is an artifact-type book. It's a case file that gathers all the stories related to Origami Yoda, a finger puppet/oracle created by Dwight. I thought this was a great way to tell the story. It moved quickly and was very enjoyable.

Note: If your young reader is still grossed out by members of the opposite sex, he/she might not be too excited about this book, as much of the plot revolves around people liking liking other people and sweating about whether to ask them to dance.… (mais)