Erica Farber

There's a lot to like about Fish Finelli. It's wholesome without being too good. It's funny, and filled with interested scientific and historical facts. The villain is not just a one-dimensional bully, and though you definitely root against him, you find yourself feeling sorry for him as well. And most of all, there's Fish, a smart, resourceful and funny kid and a likable hero.

So here's what I don't like about this installment of Fish Finelli. Girls. For a female author, the representation show more of girls in this book is lamentable at best, primarily with the new character of Clementine. As dimensional and interesting as Fish and his friends are, Clementine is flat as a pancake. Her appearance feels forced, and she doesn't have much personality. A "twist" ending does a little to spice her up, but when it comes to a bruhaha over who gets to dance with her in the end? The girl is speechless. Literally. Two boys are fighting over who gets to dance with her and the girl gets no say in the matter. In fact, she doesn't even speak again in the rest of the book. It's like she was never there.

I appreciate female characters in male-driven books, just as I would appreciate any gender neutral publishing, but you've got to do better than that. Throwing in a pretty girl without a voice is not helping anyone.

That being said, I'm still ordering this for the library, because the first book was devoured, and with Summer Reading of Science upon us, these books will fit right in. show less

In addition to the Little Critter series, Mayer also illustrated the Critters of the Night series, which was written by Erica Farber but featured characters based on Mayer's earlier series. Essentially, it took his semi-animal-but-not-quite-sure-what-kind creations from the Little Critter series and cast them in monster roles such as vampires, mummies, and werewolves. A streak of black humor runs through me, and I am drawn to odd juxtapositions; for instance, cute little characters that are show more in traditionally scary roles. In other words, these books cutesify (yes, I did just make that word up) the things that go bump in the night. I love it.

This story features the little boy critter, Axel, and Groad, who is the butler, the mad scientist? I really don't know. Regardless, they are off to Egypt to help their cousin, Mummy Moose. After daring airplane crashes, angry sheiks, and Egyptian tombs, they find Mummy Moose, only to discover that his danger is not what they expected. A simple adventure that will appeal to kids, and adults who are still kids on the inside, and the characters and the Egypt setting only add to the allure. Another bonus is that the text is simple and the illustrations are funny and colorful, so these books are a good match for toddlers like my daughter. Although I really bought this one for myself, my girls and I can enjoy it together. show less

Most of the books in the Critters of the Night series center around the daughter or son of the family. In this case, the narrator is Axel Howl, the boy, as he shares with the reader his pirate adventure. He wakes one night only to spy a pirate ship outside a window. What is a kid to do? Row out to it, of course, and demand to know what Captain Short Bob is doing in his territory. When the Captain tries to make him walk the plank, he offers them all bubble gum. When the Captain is mad that show more his pirates are cheering for Axel, Axel invites them to his house for a bowl of delicious pirate soup (made out of peanut butter, chocolate, marshmallows, onions, and cherry soda). After dinner, everyone is jolly friends, and the pirates sing and dance and fall asleep in Axel's room. The book ends with a sleepy Axel staring at the reader, saying that now you know what to do when you see a pirate ship outside your window.

I love the characters, and am fortunate that my girls like them, too, so I have an excuse to collect the whole series. They are the perfect blend of sweet and spooky. Axel's family consists of werewolves, vampires, mad scientists, and mummies, except they are all furry animal versions of these classic monsters, and drawn in a friendly cartoony style. The story is told in first-person, as are most of the others in the series, and has a friendly, inviting tone, with convincing child-like diction, that occasionally breaks the fourth wall and addresses the reader. The result is that it feels like the reader is having a conversation with Axel. The world is unique, and the plot is fun, albeit silly and a bit shallow. The setting, atmosphere, and characters carry this book, and my family and I enjoy reading it. show less

I was prejudiced against this book from the start. First, the cover is so...stereotypical. White kid forefront, fat kid and kid of color obviously the sidekicks. Of course the fat kid is eating, since that's what fat kids do. Then I flipped open the cover and read the author's note, basically saying that they wrote the book because there weren't any books "featuring modern, spirited boy heroes" etc.

Now, this may or may not be true, depending on how you look at it, but I have found in the show more past that the minute you see the "there are no books like this so I had to write one" it spells danger. On the other hand, Chronicle is a pretty good publisher.

So I read it. And you know what? It's not bad. Not as stunningly unique and wonderful as the publisher claims in their marketing, but not bad. Fish Finelli and his friends are trying to get enough money together to build a boat engine and along the way they run into rich, privileged bullies, a mysterious recluse, buried treasure and a mysterious librarian.

The book includes the average amount of artwork for a beginning chapter book and also has facts woven into the story and included in panels (this, btw, is not a new and daring idea - several other publishers, notably Capstone and Lerner, have been doing this for some time although the literary quality is not always high). It's a nice length - only about 150 pages and the overall adventure/mystery plot is fun.

My main complaint about the book, and why I probably won't buy it, is that just like all the other "they don't write good adventure books for boys so I had to write one" books, there's a distinctly old-fashioned flavor to the story. Lots of stereotypical characters and the plot revolves around the kids being on their own, including sneaking out at night. I live in a small town and while I agree that there are kids out and about on their own all summer, they are not doing anything remotely like this. I could tell you what they are doing, but I've already washed the descriptions off the walls...they wander around, get drinks at the gas station, hang out at the library, and basically...do nothing. The kids who would read this book are programmed every second of the day into after school and summer activities and would never be allowed to go off for the whole day on their own without adult supervision.

Of course, there's suspension of belief and the whole mystery/buried treasure plot is obviously a fantasy, but the book's intent of portraying the kids as realistic and then throwing them into a 1950s kids mystery just doesn't work for me.

Verdict: I'll think about this one some more, but I'm probably going to pass on it. Most boys ages 8-12 like more exciting adventure stories, fantasy, and straight nonfiction. I already have several fiction/nonfiction blend series (Doyle and Fossey, CSI Club, Can You Survive...?) and don't feel like I need any more right now.

ISBN: 9781452108209; Published April 2013 by Chronicle; ARC provided by publisher at ALA Midwinter 2013 show less