Saturday, June 06, 2009

Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers



Calvin is your normal Hawaiian fourth-grader, except that trouble always seems to find him! The story begins the day before school starts when Calvin accidentally rides a kiteboard he is watching for someone and gets all banged up.

His mom is always saying she wishes he was more "responsible." Calvin tries so hard, especially since he is the "man" of the house, but sometimes it's just hard.

Then his mom tells him that a friend's teenage daughter is moving to Hawaii to stay with them for a while. And Calvin has to move from his room to the storage closet so that she can have her own room.

School starts, and Calvin is excited about his teacher: Mr. Purdy and his "boot camp." (He's a former Army guy.) But trouble even seems to find him there! (His centipede on the loose in the classroom, he is in a food fight, he has to avoid the school bully when he dumps juice all over his new shirt, and lots more!)


What I Thought:
Super book. It's really fun and Calvin is a very likable character who is just your run-of the mill boy who just seems to get caught in the wrong time.

I really enjoyed the Hawaiian setting! Hubs and I visited Hawaii in 2007, so I love anything dealing with that. It was neat to read about living there; about going to school and some of the different foods they eat and just life in general.

This book does deal with bullies as Calvin is bullied by an older kid in his school. It is interesting to see how he deals with the problem.

I can't wait to check out the other books in this new series, and book two Calvin Coconut: The Zippy Fix is set to release in Sept. '09. I've already got it on order for my library!

This is another great book to hand kids who enjoy the Junie B. Jones books, Roscoe Riley, or other solid book about good kids who find themselves in interesting situations.

Highly Recommended.

Want to see more? Check it out on Amazon: Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers.

No comments: