The cover of this book is so not interesting to me. And the premise, and it didn't start out very good either. However, I had read a book by this author before that I did really enjoy, and as I got into this, it got better. The main character is Willie, his best friend moved a while back, he's horrible at baseball, but he loves baseball, and his mother is WAY overprotective. While walking home from a baseball game that he loses for his team, he cuts through the woods, which he isn't supposed to. He sees a McDonald's bag laying in a clearing and picks it up. When he does, out comes a giant blue chimp. Turns out the blue chimp is kinda like a genie, but not. So we get the normal story of be careful what you wish for. But a humorous one. In the end, I really got to where the blue chimp, Dodger, was making me laugh. So it was entertaining. And at the end, it kind of leaves you hanging, not knowing how the big last baseball game of the year actually turns out. But they also give an excerpt from a sequel to the book, and I like when the books on these lists do have sequels. At least that's what I've decided.
I think a really good book, that gets kids to read it, and then to go on to it's sequels, only leads to those same kids, who may not have read much before, really getting into reading. Soon they're in the library asking for more books like what they just finished, sometimes while they're waiting for the next book in the series that got them started to come out. In fact, I've seen this over and over in my classes the last few years. It's so great to see. While this isn't personally my cup of tea, I can see it fitting in the same slot as the book I didn't really care for last year that still made it to the list, The Big One-O by Dean Pitchford.
Got to this blog a bit late, almost done with the next book: The Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish by Claudia Mills, which I'm really enjoying.
