Cotler, Steve. Cheesie Mack is Cool in a Duel.ARC from Netgalley.com
26 June 2012, Random House Children's Books
This sequel to Cheesie Mack is Not a Genius or Anything arrives just in time for summer. Cheesie (real name, Ronald) is finally off to his grandfather's summer camp with his friend Georgie, and looking forward to all of it. However, when they arrive, they find out that there was no room in their regular cabin for them, so they are put in with slightly older boys who are not happy to have them, including Kevin, Cheesie's arch nemesis. Cheesie challenges Kevin to a "cool duel" (much the same way as he has a point battle with his sister), and there is a running tally of their activities. Camp activities and schemes abound, and Cheesie and Georgie so their best to survive the summer and make it to middle school.
Strengths: Lots of action and goofiness. I do appreciate that there is actually a Cheesie Mack web site, which is mentioned a lot. This would be good for fans of The Fourth Stall.
Weaknesses: I never like cutesie names, and this strained my credulity a bit. (A cool duel? Really? And the counselors let them?) I did finally buy the first book in the series, and it has not been an immediate success, reinforcing my opinion that this might be best as the elementary level. As Cheesie enters middle school, I will be interested to see if he becomes less self absorbed and has more romance in the books.
Middle Grade Monday was created and is hosted by the busy Shannon Whitney Messenger and weekly lists of participants can be found at her blog, Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe.And as for #bookaday, I think I'm covered. So far this summer, mostly thanks to MotherReader's 48 Hour Challenge, I have read 106 books! If you remember last summer, I did a lot of sewing-- that is NOT happening this summer. I am finishing up two quilts for my daughter to take to college, and that is the extent of my sewing! As for running, I've been out every morning for ten days straight but am having trouble working up to the mileage I had last year. I'll try for 125 miles, but at least I'll be able to tell the cross country team that I've been good about putting in the time every day!
I'm not a fan of "cheesy" names either--although as you know they're two-a-penny in middle grade. I could see my 4th grader getting into this, however--after he finishes plowing through the Diary of the Wimpy Kid series.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that you are reading and running!
I can't say I'm drawn to the title, but I can certainly imagine my boys giggling if I read it out loud to them.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely curious about Cheesie Mack with the reference you make to The Fourth Stall, which I loved. That being said, I'm not a fan of the "cheesie names" so we'll see.
ReplyDeleteKeep meaning to jump in with the Middle Grade Monday and missing it. I'll have to check it out again for next week. Thanks for the reminder and for stopping by earlier!