32. Tuesday: The Curse of The Blue Spots

Tuesday--The Curse of the Blue Spots (Total Mayhem #2)  Ralph Lazar. 2021. 196 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: It really annoys me when one gets into a Total Mayhem situation before breakfast. Which is exactly what happened to me this morning.

Premise/plot: Dash Candoo is having another adventurous day. And his adventures--or misadventures--once again start before breakfast. (Though most of the adventures take place at his very unusual school.) In this one, the school is preparing for its face-pulling competition...and after the class drinks from the water fountain...the whole class breaks out in itchy blue spots! Coincidence??? Or sabotage???

My thoughts: I would recommend this one to fans of the first book, Into the Cave of Thieves. Both books take silliness to an extreme. The books are heavily illustrated. Not much text per page, and what text is there is very silly and action-oriented. You definitely have to suspend all disbelief and just go with the flow. Throw away logic and 'the real world' and just embrace the crazy silliness of Dash's world.

For better or worse, I will say this: the second book is very similar to the first book. I'm going to predict that ALL the books in the series will be formulaic, repetitive, predictable. The good news is that sometimes that is exactly what kids need. Series books exist for a reason. It's not laziness on the part of authors, publishers, teachers, or librarians. Series books for young readers especially--think elementary school--are intentionally formulaic. So for the intended audience, this isn't necessarily "bad." For adults, well, the novelty of it may wear out by the series end. (Personally, I'm debating how many days of the weeks I'm willing to commit to reading so I can review them.)

 

© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers