Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Class BURP (The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger#2) by Jenny Meyerhoff –NOT RECOMMENDED

Meyerhoff, Jenny and Illustrated by Week, Jason Class BURP (The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger Week #2) 241  pgs. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. $13.99. Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G Violence: G.
In this second book we find Louie dealing with the aftermath of his appearance on the famous comedian, Lou Laffermans , TV show. His 15 minutes of fame have started to fade and Louie is determined to get it back, but instead he seems to be invisible again already. With Halloween coming up, Lou comes up with a plan to run for the class marshal and find the perfect costume. But Lou only knows comedians that other students have never heard of, like Charlie Chaplin and The Three Stooges. In the meantime he has to deal with square dancing with a girl, his dad’s decorating binge, and his little sister’s continued obsession with Unicorns.
The bigger picture of this book about accepting yourself and ignoring bullies, is well crafted. But I found the book overly long, and even though I have heard of all those old school comedians, I still had trouble relating, and was so tired of the knock knock jokes. I think students will be totally lost by this long and involved plot element. The illustrations and cover art is completely fantastic, which are comic art style characters that burst with personality. I adore this illustrator!  

EL–NO  Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.

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