Summer Reading Is Killing Me! (The Time Warp Trio Series #7) by Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith (Illustrator), Adam McCauley (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Everyone's favorite time-travelers are changing their style! The Time Warp Trio series now features a brand-new, eye-catching design, sure to appeal to longtime fans, and those new to Jon Scieszka's wacky brand of humor.

Children's Literature

The Time Warp Trio is at it once again. This time, characters from stories on their summer reading list come alive, creating all kinds of crazy mischief in the process. Their only hope is to find "The Book," in which the list has been placed. Their search leads them to Hoboken Library, where Frankenstein is after Pippy Longstocking, Dracula is telling jokes, and Teddy Bear is a raving lunatic! This story is a blast from beginning to end, and kids will be rushing out to buy all the others in the "Time Warp Trio" series.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5--The Time Warp Trio is back. This time, the mayhem begins when Fred puts their school's summer reading list in The Book, the mysterious tome that has magically transported the boys to the past and the future in previous escapades. This causes Fred, Sam, and Joe to encounter the Hoboken Chicken, George and Martha, Peter Rabbit, Curious George, Frog and Toad, and a host of other children's book characters. It seems that the bad characters--the Twits, Long John Silver, the Wild Things, etc., all led by a maniacal Teddy Bear--have decided to do away with the good ones. The boys initially manage to convince the villains that they, too, are villains from an action-adventure series (whose author "starts with an s...maybe...?"), but they are soon found out. It takes a girl (Laura Ingalls? Anne of Green Gables? one of the Little Women?--they can't tell since they haven't read them!) to help them find The Book so that they can put an end to the shenanigans. Nonstop action and lots of laughs prevail throughout as the friends try to find their way out of their current predicament. Smith's black-and-white illustrations are filled with his traditional brand of zany humor. The literary references will delight teachers and librarians, and perhaps inspire readers to learn more about those characters (good or bad) unfamiliar to them.-Robin L. Gibson, Muskingum County Library System, Zanesville, OH

Kirkus Reviews

In this latest Time Warp Trio entry, Fred, Joe, and Sam have sworn off using that volume of dangerous time-travel, The Book. When Fred sticks Sam's summer reading list inside it, they find themselves whisked off, not to another time, but to a world where all the characters from the books on the list are congregated, where the evil characters are determined to crush all the good characters and take over the stories. Aided by the Girl, who seems to be a composite of female heroines from all the formula series books the boys never read, Fred, Joe, and Sam battle the leader of the bad guys, an embittered Mr. Bear ("Just because I'm a teddy bear, I get no respect") to find The Book and get back to the real world. Filled with humorous action and suspense, this book will have special appeal to those who get the hip-deep references to dozens of children's books (without such understanding, the middle section becomes somewhat incomprehensible). With plenty of action and silly humor, the book itself is a pretty good addition to summer reading lists. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 7-11)

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