20 February 2014

Not Quite Ready for Disaster

Last spring we bought a copy of Masters of Disaster by Gary Paulsen.  After reading the summary on the back cover, I thought it would be a good book to read to Isaac over the summer.  It sounded like a great boy book.  Here is the Amazon summary:

"Roped into wacky attempts to break world records, imitate scenes from books, and other inspired ideas, Riley and Reed follow their fearless leader Henry into the wilderness, the bull-riding ring, a haunted house, cataclysmic collision with explosive life forms, and off the roof of a house on a bike."

We started the book, but it did not capture Isaac's attention like I thought it would.  The antics of the characters were funny but the vocabulary the author used was a little too hard for Isaac to fully follow the action.  We did finally finish it, but it is not a book that we will keep and re-read.

The story follows three boys as they try to make themselves famous.  There is a ring-leader, of course, who plans and leads each adventure.  But the boy who is always chosen to carry out the planned stunt is the timid, weaker one.  The story is more about this awkward boy gaining confidence in himself in that crucial time leading into middle school than it is about the failure of the boys to gain fame.

While Isaac wasn't quite ready for this book, I think it would be a fun read for an older boy with a wider vocabulary.

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