Tuesday, September 20, 2011

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb

I'm not sure what to say about this book. From the cover, I was expecting something appropriate for younger kids—maybe 4th and 5th grade boys. But when I started reading and heard the funny but trash-mouthed narrator I was a little taken aback. Oliver Watson is a 12-year-old kid who secretly is the third-richest person in the world. He's overweight and underdeveloped and puts on a dumb act at school and at home while he secretly overthrows dictators and blackmails presidents in his underground lair. He rigs his middle school drinking fountains with root beer and chocolate milk and has a transmitter in his jaw that can call for a squadron of jets to bomb the school at a moments notice. But it turns out that what he really wants is some approval from his father, which he thinks he can gain if he can be elected class president of the 8th grade. Of course, getting kids to vote for him is a lot harder than making billions of dollars. The author is a producer of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and it is truly a funny book, just be warned that this wise-cracking evil genius can be pretty crude—so give it to 7th and 8th grade boys who will appreciate it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the title! It sounds like a book where you stop worrying about realism and read for the sheer delight of all the implausibilities! Thanks for the review and heads up about the JH boy crud!

Roe said...

I just discovered your blog today and love it! I am getting my Master's in Library Science, also hoping to be a YA librarian, and finished this book today. I enjoyed your review!