Oggie Cooder

Oggie Cooder is happy with his life, loves his dog Turk (Turkey Sandwhich, named for his favorite), likes his parents who run a used clothing store, crochets his own shoelaces and happily charves slices of processed American cheese into the shape of states. He is blissfully unaware that he is uncool, a dork, a dweeb, or a doofus to his classmates, although longs to join the boys in basketball. The story opens when Oggie receives the unfortunate news that he has lost a competition to create a name for the latest bagel creation by the Bakestuff Company. Although he doesn't long for fame, his neighbor, Donnica Perfecto will do just about anything to become famous and move to Hollywood. Somehow, these two end up working together, and who show more knows if either becomes famous in the end?

This is a funny book, with such creative characters and a great story that tells a lesson without becoming to preachy. I had the great opportunity to hear Sarah Weeks, Avi, Pam Munoz Ryan and Brian Selznick do this as a Readers Theater production at the American Library Association's 2009 conference. Brian Selznick was hysterical as Oggie, adding his own brand of charm to Oggie's "prrrrr-ip, prrrrr-ip"s, and "frappachino"s. A great addition to any elementary library! show less

Oggie Cooder has a talent -- he can charve better than anyone else in Truman Elementary School. (Charving, for the uninitiated, is the carving of a piece of cheese with one's teeth.) Oggie doesn't think this is anything special -- but his whole school will soon be disagreeing with him. Because after he inadvertantly charves during a nationwide hunt for unusual talents, his charving puts him on the path to fame and forture. Suddenly, he's the star of the school . . . but he's not sure that he wants to shine that way.
This is Sarah Weeks at her best -- funny, clever, and kid-friendly.

Oggie Cooder's teachers describe him as "unusual" and "one-of-a-kind'. Oggie considers this a compliment. The other kids at his school consider Oggie to be just plain weird. He's always wearing a strange mix of clothes from his parents' secondhand shop. His dog's name is Turk (short for Turkey-on-Rye, Oggie's favorite sandwich). And perhaps strangest of all is Oggie's hidden talent, charving. (That's chewing + carving.) Oggie is an expert at charving cheese into the shapes of the states of America.

His hidden talent might have gone unnoticed if not for Oggie's snobby neighbor Donnica Perfecto. She's determined to be a star and when she sees an ad for auditions for the major TV show Hidden Talents, Donnica jumps at the chance to show show more everybody up. She knows who's got the most hidden talent of all (Oggie) and she'll stop at nothing until he helps her win a spot on the show. But things don't turn out quite as Donnica plans...

A funny chapter book for younger middle-grade readers, Oggie Cooder has its fair share of silliness, but a solid story underneath. It looks like we may see more of Oggie and I think that would be a wonderful thing. show less

Quirky fourth-grader Oggie Cooder goes from being shunned to everyone's best friend when his uncanny ability to chew slices of cheese into the shapes of states wins him a slot on a popular television talent show, but he soon learns the perils of being a celebrity--and having a neighbor girl as his manager.

Cute, super quick read, kinda quirky. Reminds me of my insane childhood love of processed cheese. So glad I moved on to real cheddar.

Oggie likes to charve, he is so good at it he wins a talent show with it,People want to make oggie oggier. people who like this book are people with humor.

Weird kid named oggie cooder started as a regular 4th grader to a famous 4th grader what a transformation.Charving is not a easy thing to do but oggie had the guts to do it .