like diary of a wimpy kid for an older crowd, The "hero" is extremely self centered and unlikeable, but the story itself is hilarious, Good for boys. Michael Scott of DunderMifflin had to beyearsold at some point, And thats a fair description of the taperecorded narrator of this book, The boy is never named, but thats not for lack of ego, He demands attention, and entertainment, and mountains of Twinkies and Lucky Charms and fast food chicken, Just like Michael Scott, he spends a lot of time whining and wimpering, And just like the Office boss, he sees himself as a chiseled ladies man,
On the other hand, we never get a great sense of what he looks like, Given his appetite and hatred of exercise, I can best imagine him chiseled out of Crisco, Given his attitude, its hard to imagine anyone who would want to be his friend, Thats not the best premise for a story, and in spite of all the laughs and Officelike cringe moments, I cant bring myself to care much one way or another.
It's funny but a little umm, . . TEEN at some parts. The hero of this story is narrating his tale onto tapes in a sort of audio journal to make his mother happy, His tale of woe begins when he does something very, very bad, and as a result must spend time volunteering in a soup kitchen as punishment, There he finds himself in the middle of a battle between the rich and the poor over the future of the soup kitchen, And our hero could not possibly care less, He has no interest in civic duty or social activism or much of anything else, His only goal is to serve his time, so to speak, and get on with his life, Then, he makes a discovery about the soup kitchen that changes his perspective, Suddenly the place and the battle has meaning, and our hero decides to enter the fray and become the hero he never meant to be,
This is a great story for what many people consider to be our rather apathetic times, It teaches a variety of lessons that people wont care about something unless it means something to them, that even the most cynical and disinterested of people can be moved to greatness, and that, yes, one kid can make a difference.
There are so many different things that can be discussed with this book that makes it a great choice for book clubs or classroom discussion, I would recommend this for any kidamp up, funny A funny book that should easily appeal to teenage guys, Our 'hero' is a selfobsessed thirteen year old that wishes his father would give him tips on how to take off a girl's bra, that he had more money to buy fried chicken and candy, that he DIDN'T have to volunteer at the local soup kitchen, take Ukrainian dance lessons, or do his paperroute.
He is whiny, obnoxious, and crude, . . and yet you can't help but laugh at the way he expresses himself, the situations he gets himself into, and just the utter ridiculousness! He reminds me quite a bit of Greg Heffley sitelinkDiary of a Wimpy Kid, the kind of protagonist that is hilarious on paper, but you would want to strangle in real life.
Oh, and the best part, since a diary is just too girly, he's keeping track of his life with a tape recorder, Yep, old fashioned cassettes. HILARIOUS! Filled with wit and sarcasm, this is a great read for any teen or adult who loves to laugh, There are certain kinds of characters I simply cannot stand,
One specific group isyear old boys who are cocky and when they're not complimenting themselves are thinking about sex,
Welcome to the 'hero',
So simply because I cannot stand these kinds of characters, the firstor so pages were incredibly difficult to get through, The character's voice bothered me so much, I could
not stand his endless prattling, It was boring and stupid and I hated it,
Lucky me, about pagethere become more important matters, The MC actually stops thinking about himself and sex, to concern himself with matters of the plot, This made the book more bearable,
It's not that I cared for the plot, It was an interesting concept, by failed to pull on any heart strings or make me care, Which was a problem, as the issue could have been very interesting,
Honestly the only reason this book got two is because of the relief that there was a plot and the MC would stop thinking about himself.
My problem resided in the MC alone, so it just depends whether or not you can stand him, This is honestly one of the funniest novels I've read in ages, I practically fell off my chair laughing a few times, pounding the table, tears streaming down my face, Think of it as like Adrian Mole, but with normal parents and more of a plot, The protagonist is your typical thirteenyearold boy: arrogant, selfish, oblivious, and besieged by puberty, The author portrayed the adolescent boy friendships perfectly, and the details about the narrator's growing up meshed perfectly into the story, The only flaw I find is that his turnaround from a selfish jerk to an altruistic activist was a bit too sudden to be believable, But that's a minor thing in such a wonderful gem of a story, Ce livre avait plusieurs défauts, mais aussi beaucoup de qualité, Le fait est que l'histoire raconte l'histoire d'un enfant ado! deans qui n'est franchement pas parfait, En fait, il est un peu monstre, je pourrais dire, Et pour lui, l'argent est une valeur assez importante,
Et bon, tout au long de l'histoire, le jeune fait des erreurs, des conneries, mais il apprend de chacune de ses actions,
Les défauts, c'est que le vocabulaire ne me faisait pas toujours pensé à un adolescent deans, Disons que les mots utilisés me faisaient parfois sourciller, Aussi, l'action est un peu lente à arriver, En fait, j'avais l'impression qu'il n'y avait jamais vraiment de grandes actions, de grands défis ou de quêtes, Il n'y avait pas vraiment de "but" ce qui rendait peutêtre plus difficile l'envie de s'accrocher au livre,
PAR CONTRE, il y a une belle morale sur l'argent et le partage, Le jeune, pas religieux du tout, se retrouve quand même à travailler bénévolement dans une Mission qui sert des repas aux plus démunis, Il y découvre que bien que parfois on songe qu'il n'y a que des personnes robineuses qui s'y retrouve, c'est loin d'être le cas, Il y a aussi des gens moins chanceux dans la vie, des familles et des enfants, . .
Aussi comme ce n'est pas un livre de l'année, j'ai aimé les petites références culturelles et le fait que le jeune raconte son histoire comme s'il enregistrait sa voix sur une cassette.
UNE CASSETTE !!! Ahaha! J'adore. Ça me rappel des souvenirs!
Bref, : Voilà! hilarious! The funniest book I've ever read, Hell, it's summer and I'm entitled to some light reading, right Exploits was just perfect, The main character is a Canadian boy who begins the novel pig headed, and selfish, He ends the novel only slightly redeemed, but by then the tone of selfcongratulation is more ironic and easier to bear, The narrator's voice is engaging enough, but I found I was constantly irritated with his attitude, As the book progresses and the character grows, however, the jokes become much funnier and the book becomes a real joy to read, Hilarious. Niel randomly found this at the library in the teen section, It is pretty hilarious. The lead character is so vacuous and annoying I didn't think I could possibly end up liking him, . . and yet. I thought this was great teen fiction with boy appeal, and a good balance of inanities and strong plot, I just wish I'd known when I was a teenager there'd been books like this, so I could have understood how boys' brains really worked, . . : This book has a main character who begins as a very selfish an horny young man, His parents exhibit solid, consistent models of guidance, but it seems to bounce right off this youth, By the story's end, the boy has predictably shifted away from his selfcenteredness, but I found that it took so very long for it to happen, that I lost interest in him.
His character remained static for too long and the scenes displaying his lack of integrity just seemed to keep repeating over and over without making any progress towards reformation.
Although some passages were funny and sarcastic, I probably won't recommend this book to many of my gradereaders, Kind of funny. A little too much adult humor for a young adult book, 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, The hero of this story is narrating his tale onto tapes in a sort of audio journal to make his mother happy, His tale of woe begins when he does something very, very bad, and as a result must spend time volunteering in a soup kitchen as punishment, There he finds himself in the middle of a battle between the rich and the poor over the future of the soup kitchen, And our hero could not possibly care less, He has no interest in civic duty or social activism or much of anything else, His only goal is to serve his time, so to speak, and get on with his life, Then, he makes a discovery about the soup kitchen that changes his perspective, Suddenly the place and the battle has meaning, and our hero decides to enter the fray and become the hero he never meant to be,
This is a great story for what many people consider to be our rather apathetic times, It teaches a variety of lessons that people wont care about something unless it means something to them, that even the most cynical and disinterested of people can be moved to greatness, and that, yes, one kid can make a difference.
There are so many different things that can be discussed with this book that makes it a great choice for book clubs or classroom discussion, I would recommend this for any kidamp up, This book centers on a gradeboy, who would rather eat fried chicken and candy than his mother's cooking, and would rather read Playboy than do his homework, He has a strong sense that the world should revolve around him and gets put out when that doesn't happen, His teachers send him to a counsellor for inappropriate acts and talk at school, but that doesn't stop him, His parents make him get a paper route and volunteer at a soup kitchen, but he still keeps the attitude, It is only when the soup kitchen is faced with losing their funding and he sees how that really affects the lives of those who depend on it, that he is forced to see beyond his own needs and realize the big picture.
A great book for boys in late elementary and middle school, it has all the humour that they enjoy as well as a real story about the world we live in.
This book really surprised me, The "reluctant hero" is a disturbed and totally self absorbed teenager, There were many moments that left me laughing so hard I was crying, This kid is seriously messed up and just when I thought he was hopelesshe flips on me and grows into a caring person who fights for those less fortunate.
I loved this book. When I was growing up, the idea of becoming a fiction writer never crossed my mind, At university, I studied science and business, After I graduated, I held jobs in the aerospace, biopharmaceutical and financial services industries, I was ready for life in the corporate fast lane, Then, six weeks after our first daughter was born, my husband suggested that I try writing, Thinking that it might be a good way to keep my brain stimulated in between diaper changes, I decided to give it a try, That first time I reached my fingers toward the keyboard to write a story it felt as though I was slipping my hands into a pair of gloves that had been waiting for me my whole life.
And the rest, as they say, is history,