Exploits of a Reluctant (But Extremely Goodlooking) Hero
- Publisher
- Kids Can Press
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2007
- Category
- Boys & Men
- Recommended Age
- 10 to 14
- Recommended Grade
- 5 to 9
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781554530250
- Publish Date
- Mar 2007
- List Price
- $8.95
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781554530243
- Publish Date
- Mar 2007
- List Price
- $19.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Out of print
This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.
Description
Meet a teenage hero who likes nothing better than to sit back with a bucket of fried chicken and a girlie magazine, waiting for his family plumbing fortune to come to him. But when our hero gets into some serious trouble, he's forced to volunteer at a local soup kitchen where he finds himself at the center of a struggle between the rich and the poor, the selfish and the selfless. It is a worthy cause he could care less about until the day he stumbles across a shocking piece of information. What happens next surprises everybody, including our very reluctant hero.
Exploits of a Reluctant (But Extremely Goodlooking) Hero is a novel of adventure, intrigue, Ukrainian dance lessons, disruptive horseplay, inappropriate ogling and some truly heroic consumption of junk food. Adrian Mole meets South Park in this often outrageous and always hilarious trip into the inner world of a boy teetering on the brink of manhood.
About the author
Maureen Fergus est auteure lauréate de plusieurs livres pour enfants et jeunes adultes, dont The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten, Et si je ne veux pas? et les livres de la série Buddy and Earl. Elle vit à Winnipeg, au Manitoba.
Maureen Fergus is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults, including The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten and the Buddy and Earl series of books. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Mike Lowery has illustrated many books for children, including The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten and A Squiggly Story. Mike lives in Decatur, Georgia.
Awards
- Short-listed, Book of the Year for Children Award, CLA
- Winner, Best Bets Young Adult, Ontario Library Association
- Short-listed, Book of the Year, ForeWord Magazine
Editorial Reviews
A first-rate debut ... extraordinarily witty, zippy and entertaining throughout.
Kirkus Reviews
This story is sure to appeal to teens who like their narrators edgy, quirky, outrageous, and hilarious.
School Library Journal
... a very funny, very original first novel ...
Winnipeg Free Press
Librarian Reviews
Exploits of a Reluctant (But Extremely Goodlooking) Hero
Meet our hero: a seventh grade boy with a lot on his mind, and a lot to say – about everything! Encouraged by his mother to record his thoughts on tape rather than continue to share them with the world, he takes readers on a hilarious foray into the mind of a teenage boy with Maureen Fergus’s first novel.This nameless character has no lack of self-assuredness or confidence, and like many teenagers, he believes he has the world owed to him in spades. While some readers may find him obnoxious and seemingly twodimensional, his voice is fresh and funny, and it is a nice change in a field where interesting boy voices are often lacking.
What also makes this book worth finishing is the growth that the hero experiences by the end of the story. In the beginning he is completely selfabsorbed, and seems to have a questionable moral compass (or complete lack thereof), but he learns and grows as the book progresses, without ever losing the personality which makes him so unique.
Relaying his story in an oral diary format, the narrator is extremely blunt and honest, which is why the transition from selfish to selfless is seamless and almost imperceptible. When he gets caught up in a fight against injustice, and starts working for a cause that hits closer to home than he realized, he is perhaps the most surprised of anybody at his ability and desire to affect change.
Clean enough for sophisticated ten or eleven-year-olds, but more appropriately placed on a junior high shelf, both boys and girls will enjoy the exploits of this totally fun (if not as good looking as he thinks) hero.
Source: The Canadian Children's Bookcentre. Spring 2007. Vol.30 No.2.
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