Romeo and Juliet--Together (And Alive!) at Last

Pete Saltz, the pudgy poet from S.O.R. Losers, has fallen hard for Anabell Stackpoole, and she likes him, too. But both are much too shy to do anything about it.
It's Pete's friend Ed Sitrow to the rescue, as he and other eighth-graders at South Orange River School cook up a scheme to give the budding romance a boost. The school production of Romeo and Juliet stars the bashful pair in the leading roles -- and everybody's waiting for the kissing scenes. What they get is more action than Shakespeare ever imagined, in the funniest, most disastrous...and most romantically successful production ever!

This is one of the few books I've had to set down so I could stop laughing long enough to breathe. I don't know why I find it so freaking hilarious. But I do! Excellent for any middle-school student who enjoys a quick, funny, read!

Ed's best friend, Pete Saltz, has a problem. He's in love with Anabell Stackpoole and is utterly unable to do anything about it. When Ed realizes Saltz is in desperate need of love assistance, he and the rest of his class come up with a plan to do a production of Romeo and Juliet with Saltz and Anabell in the leading rolls. However, putting together a play in only two weeks turns out to be a little more difficult than Ed could have imagined.

Okay, so this isn't really a young adult book like I anticipated, I'd say it is more for the elementary to tween reader. However, this adult (meaning me) found the book to be absolutely, gut wrenchingly hilarious!! I can't remember the last time I laughed as hard as I did while reading about this show more ill-fated production. The characters were quite endearing and were surprisingly developed for the story. I've never read anything by Avi before, but I'll have to keep an eye out for his books in the future, because whether it was written for kids or not, I loved this one. show less

Two and a half stars. This was cute and a little stupid. It makes for a good, quick, fuzzy read if a person's having a bad day or needs to be lifted out of a reading slump. I liked how the kids had obviously memorized their lines, but constantly said the words wrong. "Lemon table day" instead of "lamentable day" was my favorite. It was realistic mistakes and had me giggling.

Ed plays matchmaker to help Pete, who's hopelessly in love with Anabell. When his class reads Romeo & Juliet he know who should play the leads in a school production. But can Ed pull it off?

Action-driven complement to a study of Romeo & Juliet. While the play is integral to the story, only selected scenes and lines are part of the story. Ed's story and predicaments add an interesting and humorous vehicle for Shakespeare. While the characters are 8th graders, the characters and situations will appeal to younger readers. Includes a bully. Sequel to S.O.R. Losers, but this story stands on its own. Gr 4-7

I might have gotten more out of this if I'd read the first book in the series, but I still thought this book was pretty cute.