David Cody Weiss

The Fairly Oddparents is one of those cartoon shows that can be enjoyed by both children and adults. Timmy has two fairy godparents because Cosmo and Wanda are a married couple. His godparents mirror his real parents in that both Cosmo and Mr. Turner are cute, not very smart, and often incompetent; while Wanda and Mrs. Turner are smarter and more competent than their husbands. Timmy's oblivious parents don't appear in this book, though.

Timmy's wishes usually go wrong in spectacular ways. show more This time it's a bit different. Cosmo and Wanda are off to the Six Wands Fairy Resort while their wands are in for their 50,000-wish tune=ups. They give Timmy a box filled with tokens, each token good for one wish, before they leave.

Timmy leaves the box on his front steps while he goes off to play his new game with his two best friends, A. J. and Chester, who happened to come by. Unfortunately for Timmy, the box is found by Tootie. Tootie wears ugly glasses, has braces on her teeth, and has a hairstyle that does nothing for her. Tootie is crazy for Timmy, which horrifies him. Now we have our plot: Tootie uses the tokens to get Timmy to play with her in ways he finds utterly humiliating, such as being dressed as a lady. Will his best friends see him and assume it's all voluntary? Worse, will Tootie's big sister, Vicky, Timmy's evil, sadistic, monet-grubbing baby-sitter, see him? If you watch the show, you know the answers.

How will Timmy get out of this predicament? Can he get those wish tokens away from Tootie? Will Cosmo and Wanda suddenly pop in with their wands newly tuned, ready to rescue him?

I'm pleased to be able to report that this book is true to the spirit of the show in prose and illustrations. I recommend it to FOP fans. show less

DarqStarz Rising knows its audience. It has lots of elements to appeal to a younger readership-- thin, bobbleheaded characters, text inserted in "computer screen" and chat form, slang for a familiar sound to the text, full-color art blended in. What it doesn't have is a particularly unique message: be yourself. I have no objection to a book that tells kids that, but this one's not so subtle, and the "Darq" concept blends uneasily with "be yourself, define yourself." I also don't really think show more the book knocks down any social barriers (maybe the next one, the "to be continued," will); if anything, the snotty crowd is still very much the enemy, and that "anti-them" barrier really gets reinforced. They may not be pleasant, but they're portrayed as shallow, talentless, manipulative, and generally brainless. Not "Darq" material. Is it really right to show that only some people have the potential to define themselves?

Anyway, it's a decent read for kids, who will find the above-listed characteristics engrossing, and it's a little spin on the ususal. Not your typical novel, not manga. And the basic message, without analysis, is still a good one. I will say that the end (no spoilers here) is going to have a child clamboring for the next book, ASAP, so if you're ordering this one, go ahead and get the next. show less

Simple writing but well-written, I continue to enjoy these more than I figured I would when I first started the Smallville reading project. Being a fan of the show and characters is likely what does it.

Like the others in the earlier series besides the first book, this novelization invents a story instead of using an episode recap. I enjoy this since it adds on to the fan canon, and overall the writers have done a worthy job. This time the group of friends runs into a local girl who takes show more animal activism too far, and the author brings up the controversial topics of big-game hunting, meat eating, farming, and animal activists, treating said subjects delicately.

The freak of the week was a clever tale about a girl who gains twisted meteor powers. The ending is kind of funny, even if it probably wasn't meant to be, with the large animal suddenly charging the stage.

I dug seeing the series regulars. Lana isn't a favorite of mine but I loved her ending speech and the subtle revenge she takes with it; it too me by surprise because I was kind-of expecting some humdrum, goody-two-shoes output and was pleasantly amused instead. Chloe is cute but almost cloying. Pete's always fun, and Lex steals any page he appears on. The authors captured a faithful picture of Clark and made it convincing.

Enhanced smell shows up, something I'd wondered about before. He has an ability with his ears, four with the eyes, and considering the breath powers and mouth...I always wondered about the nose. The only sense not heightened? As the book explains it, it's not a power but something that enhanced during puberty along with a full host of other powers. I'm guessing instead of actually "Super smell", he just has a more advanced olfactory system than humans. Works out for the subtle burning wire smell that's about to start an issue in the book, but would suck in other situations with smelly people. The "fear sweat smell" scene was a little fan-girl fascinating.

Overall this series is proving to be much more fun that I anticipated. Despite the weaker first book, these sequels are definitely worth a read for fans, as long as you don't mind the writing style geared for such a young age group. show less

I was a fan of the show, originally watching because Animated Lizzie was designed by Savage Steve Holland, creator of Better Off Dead and the Whammies from the Press Your Luck game show, so I definitely had to check out the movie when it came out on video (I was working for Blockbuster Video at the time). When I saw this in my Little Free Library, I thought it would be a nice little revisit.

And it was. Being a junior novelization, it directly follows the movie, leaving out only a few minor show more details that probably either weren't in the screenplay draft used to adapt or weren't deemed important enough to the overall story (Sergei and Ungermeyer, for example).

It's a fun story, and I'll be putting it back in my Little Free Library for someone else to discover. show less