Monday, April 19, 2010

The Greatest Blogger in the World by Andrew McDonald

Save the day, get the girl and be the hero – this is the motto of Charlie Ridge.

The Greatest Blogger in the World is a fabulous title but while this is a light and funny book it is probably not the greatest book in the world. Having said that it does contain lots of ideas that are really clever and very ingenious.

Charlie is a highly intelligent boy but for reasons that I didn’t really grasp he is desperate to hide his abilities from everyone, especially from everyone at his school – kids and teachers. Blogging is perfect for Charlie because he can truly be himself, or so he thinks. And now there is a competition to be the greatest blogger in the world. First prize is a fabulous url www.thegreatestbloggerintheworld.com.

There are plenty of quirky ideas and characters in this book. I especially liked Charlie’s friend Phattius Beatts (his real name is Gene Bollingworth), the duck called Barcode and Joshua, his little Kindergarten brother who wears a small tuxedo 24 hours a day. Breakfast is Corn Flookes, the teacher makes every day special by focusing on odd things like donuts and the school mascot is a large model of a sheep called the Unshorn Merino.

When the Unshorn Merino is stolen from the school the story reaches a hilarious climax. Children looking for illegal red cordial are also a great inclusion.

This book has large print (I always love this!), it is interspersed with Charlie’s blog entries and the plot moves along at a fast pace so I would recommend this book to boys in middle and senior classes. Check out the fun web site and since this is a first novel by Andrew McDonald make sure you visit his web site too. When you go to his web page you can see him reading this book! His little video will surprise you.

No comments: