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Summary
Summary
Grdankl the Strong, president of Kprshtskan, is plotting to take over the American government. His plan is to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School, located in a Maryland suburb just outside Washington. The rich kids at Hubble cheat by buying their projects every year, and Grdankl's cronies should have no problem selling them his government-corrupting software. But this year, Toby Harbinger, a regular kid with Discount Warehouse shoes, is determined to win the $5,000 prize-even if he has to go up against terrorists to do it. With the help of his best friends, Tamara and Micah, Toby takes on Assistant Principal Paul Parmit, aka "The Armpit," a laser-eyed stuffed owl, and two eBay buyers named Darth and the Wookiee who seem to think that the Harrison-Ford-signed BlasTech DL-44 blaster Toby sold them is a counterfeit. What transpires is a hilarious adventure filled with mystery, suspense, and levitating frogs.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-When Grdankl the Strong, president of the small, but extremely unhappy country of Krpshtskan, declares war on the United States, no one is safe. Its agents are en route to Hubble Middle School where an operative has been working for several years to create award-winning science-fair projects for underachieving children and their overinvolved parents. This is the year that the top projects will be designed to work in concert to bring down the United States in one enormous, electromagnetic pulse strike. All that is standing in the way of this diabolical plan are three students, a science store operator, a handful of bumbling FBI agents, and a giant Weinermobile. Barry and Ridley have created a wild story of danger, espionage, stinky cheese, exploding vats of Coca-Cola, and one floating frog. This nonstop, action-packed novel will appeal to every kid who has ever had to do a science-fair project.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Eighth-grader Toby Harbinger and his outcast friends would look forward to the science fair if it were a fair competition. However, every year the rich (and obviously brainless) kids submit wonderful projects they had about as much to do with as they did the creation of the Parthenon, andone of themalways wins. Toby discovers how they're doing it, but no one will believe him. Suddenly, someone is framing him for cheating. He's suspended, then grounded, then arrested for terrorism. There's more going on at this year's science fair than anyone (except Toby and his friends) knows: Turns out fixing the fair might just save the country! Barry and Pearson, co-authors of numerous Peter Panbased novels (Cave of the Dark Wind, 2007, etc.), turn their attention to our reality (sort of) with laugh-out-loud results. A wildly unbelievablepage-turner that's all the more fun for itsover-the-top silliness, this is Carl Hiaasen's Hoot (2002) on suspect mushrooms. The short chapters plus the promise of a sequel will please reluctant readers as well as those seeking laughs, suspense and floating amphibians. (Science fiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
If there was any doubt that today's authors have acclimated themselves to writing in a post-9/11 world, Barry and Pearson's latest comedy revolves around a group of terrorists intent on attacking America. Fortunately, most of them are just good-natured bumblers, but one of them has an actual plan: use rich middle-school kids (and their grade-obsessed parents) to unwittingly build a super-weapon for the science fair. Eighth-grader Toby is sick of the same kids winning every year, and when he learns about the plot, it's up to him and his friends to stop the cheating and, while they're at it, save the world. The humor is a mix of chuckle-worthy wordplay and dead-on-arrival groaners; a subplot involving thieves attempting to steal Toby's parents' Star Wars memorabilia will generate the loudest laughs. Readers will appreciate the modern details (iPhones, Dance Dance Revolution, and Google all figure into the story), and the theme of overeager parenting will resonate even through all the zany noise.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2008 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
SCIENCE FAIR A Story of Mystery, Danger, International Suspense, and a Very Nervous Frog. By Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Disney Editions. $18.99. (Ages 10 and up) Mean rich kids, heavies from the Republic of Krpshtskan and a "Star Wars" memorabilia collector in a Darth Vader mask are some of the bad guys in Pearson and Barry's hilarious new novel. Toby Harbinger has to win the $5,000 first prize at the Hubble Middle School science fair to make Darth Vader go away, but much more is at stake: a plot to steal top-secret technology, unwittingly aided by hypercompetitive parents. Somehow it all makes sense. ABSOLUTELY WILD By Dennis Webster. Illustrated by Kim Webster Cunningham. David R. Godine. $17.95. (Ages 5 and up) A father-daughter team assembles a menagerie, wild and garden-variety. Cunningham's hand-colored linoleum prints complement the jaunty poems ("The snail's a funny little fellow/Whose body seems to run on Jell-o./He slips and slides along the ground /And never makes the slightest sound"). The text is simple enough that the book could double as an early reader, and lines about the yak's "hairy top and hairy bottom" should go over big. LET IT BEGIN HERE! April 19, 1775: The Day the American Revolution Began. Written and illustrated by Don Brown. Roaring Brook. $17.95. (Ages 6 to 10) "One of the most famous days in American history" comes to life in this account. Using a blunt, expressive style - except for redcoats and splashes of blood, the watercolors are mostly in shades of brown - the author conveys the human scale of the revolution that began in a field in Lexington (some images make the age guidance of 6 seem on the young side). The book's sourcing could be more informative, but as history lessons go, this one is fast-paced and accessible. THE PENCIL By Allan Ahlberg. Illustrated by Bruce Ingman. Candlewick. $16.99. (Ages 4 to 8) A creative cousin of Harold's purple crayon, Ahlberg and Ingman's "lonely little pencil" busily draws a dog, a cat, a family, a paintbrush (which brings color into the story), a boiled egg named Billy and other characters who insist on taking over their own story and rudely ordering up revisions. ("'Get rid of these ridiculous sneakers!' yelled Elsie.") Finally the pencil is forced to come up with the only possible solution: an eraser or two. EON Dragoneye Reborn. By Alison Goodman. Viking. $19.99. (Ages 12 and up) The odds are stacked almost too heavily against Eon, a girl masquerading as a 12-year-old boy - a would-be "dragoneye apprentice" to one of the "12 energy dragons of good fortune" (Goodman's fantasy world is based on East Asian astrology). But this novel includes plenty of exciting sword fights and plot reversals, and the dragons themselves, which only mystics of Eon's ability can see, are beautifully described. Eon's rise and fall take an unpredictable course, and a surprise awaits at the end, setting up Book 2. HATE THAT CAT By Sharon Creech. Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins. $15.99. (Ages 8 to 12) Creech's new novel - a companion to "Love That Dog" - once again uses poetry to talk about poetry in the voice of a boy named Jack. In his one-sided exchange with his teacher, Miss Stretchberry (we get traces of her presence: "O.K. O.K., O.K. / I will learn how to spell alliteration"), he argues, cajoles and remembers, and arrives at an understanding of what words are for. Along the way we learn about his favorite writers (oddly, repeating some verses from the previous book) and why William Carlos Williams, "the wheelbarrow guy," still sounds new. JULIE JUST