Acquire Kid Vs. Squid Created By Greg Van Eekhout Copy

am having a hard time deciding how I really feel about this book, Before reading the book, I read some reviews stating this was a very funny book but I didn't find it to be that amuzing.
I think it was quite creative and I'm pretty sure my students will like it but I'm not sure I would think of it as being very funny.
Maybe it was the state of mind I was in while reading it : This is a rather wild story about a boy and his growing up adventure.
However, it's got bits of seaside interest which Van Eekout is amazingly good at and beautiful prose that make this book a great read for YA fans.
I don't want to put in spoilers so go read this one, It's an afternoon read, so put it on your list, Perfect combo of good title, great cover, and easily booktalked plot, Wacky summer adventure with lots of oceanthemed mayhem, It's fastpaced and has moments of good humor, but it was also a little hard to follow, and perhaps the most unforgivable, false advertising: no squid until page.


I read it aloud to my kids and they enjoyed it, though were also disappointed at the lack of squid.
A fun read with a slightly paranormal bent, It's never too early for a little atlantis lore, plus I love all those gory old museums full of bits and bobs and fakery.
So the setting was great, I think Colin will like this next year in third grade, This middlegrade novel was fresh and delightful, and more charming than I expected, It's a little like Percy Jackson, except that it's more creative and doesn't take itself so seriously,

Eekhout sets the story in Los Huesos, a rather grim and macabre seaside town in California, Thatcher is sent to live with his great uncle Griswald, and his job is to help maintain Griswald's museum of curiosities, When one of the curiosities gets stolen, Thatcher and his new friend Trudy become involved in an ancient curse, a fearful witch, and a host of freaky oceanic enemies.
Despite the darkness of the mood, it had an unexpectedly happy ending,

Many elements of this novel are typical of the genre, Thatcher is a welladjusted, middleclass white boy who nonetheless feels unlucky, His friend Trudy, despite being braver and smarter, is his sidekick, Thatcher and his friends usually run from bullies instead of fighting them, The novel does have an epic conflict that may threaten the rest of the country, etc, etc, but it's mostly about Thatcher wanting to help his friends his reasons for getting involved are plausible.
My only real complaint is that the descriptions during the epic battle scene at the end got so convoluted that I stopped being able to picture it.


Myyearold daughter started reading this when she saw me reading it, and she seems to like it quite a bit.
There's no sex, no swearing, and the violence is toned down, I recommend it for middlegrade kids and those who like MG novels, Take one look at the cover of this book colossal giant cartoon squid those eye brows! amp his kid friend and tell me that you don't want to read it too! How could you not The title is fabulous, but I just couldn't get into the story.
I could probably find some kids to recommend it to, but for most, it wouldn't be a mustread, Still, since we all have different tastes, there may be some who find this to be their favorite book ever, I did like the eccentric and bizarre Uncle Griswald he was my favorite character of the bunch, Giant attack squid! Kelp and lobster men! Seagull spies! Mummies and shrunken heads! Curses and an evil witch's head and a creepy Neptune house! Nonstop action and snarky humor give this lots of boy appeal.
th grade Sometimes you just need a gentle, whimsical book that makes you feel like a kid again, That's what I needed this week, and that's why I picked up Greg Van Eekhout's book, I bought it at Phoenix Comicon and had it signed to my son,

I would have enjoyed this as a kid, too, even if it gets a little creepy at times, I love how it uses the California coast as a setting it even mentions Pismo later on, a familiar place for me, with a boy abandoned in his weird uncle's museum of strange things for his summer vacation.
The town's tourism season mysteriously starts overnight, and Thatcher discovers things only get weirder from there, Thatcher has a great voice, He babbles, he's not perfect, but he makes a great team with the two strong girls in the book, Shoal and Trudy I really loved Trudy! It's a solid middle grade book for boys or girls.
I haven't had this much fun with a book in a long, long time,

Van Eekhout's Kid Vs Squid manages to return kids of any age to that sweet spot in their imagination that their childhood favorite reads take them to.
KvS is all out adventure and humor, Three kidsThatcher, Shoal and Trudybond in ways that onlyMusketeers on a lifethreatening adventure can,

And then there's the weirdness, Uncle Griswold runs a museum for oddities of the sea, Cursed carnies return to the board walk every year, A witch's head calls all the shots of evil, It's a tough life for a kid who's been separated from his parents squirt gun magnates and abandoned in Strangeville,

Both touching and quirky, KvS delivers, Kids will be delighted by the bizarre backdrop and story, and the strong main characters, It will become a book they remember fondly, and they leave laying around for their own kids, Loved the title and cover and liked the beginning but felt it lost something about halfway through, . . decent but unexceptional Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle's seaside Museum of Curiosities.
But when a mysterious girl steals an artifact from the museum, Thatcher's summer becomes an adventure that takes him from the top of the ferris wheel to the depths of the sea.
Following the thief, he learns that she is a princess of the lost Atlantis, Her people have been cursed by an evil witch to drift at sea all winter and wash up on shore each summer to an even more terrible fateworking the midway games and food stands on the boardwalk.
Can Thatcher help save them before he, too, succumbs to the witch's curse

With sharp, witty writing that reads like a middlegrade Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Greg van Eekhout's first book for young readers is a wild ride packed with as many laughs as it has thrills.
Awesome fun! ed by Kira M for TeensReadToo, com

Thatcher is spending the summer with his eccentric uncle, Griswald, on the boardwalk at his museum of curiosities, Amongst the museum is a box that his uncle refers to as the WhatIsIt,

When a mysterious girl steals the WhatIsIt, Thatcher catches up with her and confronts her about her theft, When she tells him that she is the princess of Atlantis and is cursed to stay in the water all winter and run the stands along the boardwalk during the summer, Thatcher decides to help her, but ends up wrapped up in the curse himself!

Can Thatcher and the princess save themselves and Atlantis before it's too late What really is the WhatIsIt

This is a fastpaced, humorous adventure.


The characters are welldeveloped, and the story is unique and entertaining, Reluctant and avid readers alike who enjoy adventure, fantasy, and fastmoving stories will all enjoy reading KID VS, SQUID. .