Chive Talkin' 'Bout Killer Potatoes
Written: Nov 06 '06 (Updated Nov 07 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It's about potatoes. Might be good for reluctant readers.
Cons: Silly plot. Cut out characters. No pictures.
The Bottom Line: This is a silly story that strains one's effort to sustain disbelief. All is redeemed by the Killer Potatoes.
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| nagels's Full Review: Attack of the Killer Potatoes |
I’ve never been a big fan of the Scholastic formulaic offerings, and this one has all the usual conventions. Arnold’s the bright twelve year old who tries to stay out of trouble but is always drawn into sticky situations by his incorrigible friend. Max, the friend who lives upstairs in the apartment building, is forever the jokester, the instigator, the inveterate troublemaker. Courtney, Arnold’s tween sister, is the goody two shoes, the name caller, the spoiler, and mom’s eyes and ears. Rounding up the characters are the busy scientist mom, the clueless, cooking dad, the sinister scientist and his henchman, and of course, the one dimensional Chief of Police Crenshaw.
What kind of man would write such a silly, simple, cliche-riddled Jurassic Park with training wheels such as Attack of the Killer Potatoes? Peter Lerangis aka A.L. Singer actually has much more depth and substance than his tuber centric science fiction book for middle schoolers and the prepubescent. This writer is not a grind ‘em out, fill in the blank hack. Lerangis took up writing after graduating from Harvard with a degree in biochemistry and an eight-year career as an actor in musical theater. He’s been quite a prolific writer beginning with some Hardy Boys novels and forty Baby Sitters Club titles.
He’s written many additional juvenile series books and among his novels are: The Yearbook, Spring Break, Smiler’s Bones, It Came Dead, It Came From the Cafeteria, and Antarctica, a two volume survival epic. The Sixth Sense and Sleepy Hollow are two of his movie novelizations. This man’s a writer.
Spudopsis
Max Mayhew, his sister Courtney, and his incorrigible friend Max visit a museum in San Dunstan where Mrs. Mayhew works as a paleontologist. Mom reveals to the kids that she has discovered the largest dinosaur on record, a humongosaurus ,and a piece of amber containing a mosquito and potentially some humongosaurus DNA.
The kids learn that Dr. Nardo has stolen the amber and has developed a prototype growth serum. With Max relentlessly egging him on, the boys steal the test tube with the cube.
After a series of mishaps the growth liquid is spilled on potatoes in the produce department. The boys scoop up all the potatoes into their backpacks, buy them and take them home. Worried about the implications, the boys bury the potatoes in a city park, not knowing that Dad had taken a few for mashed potatoes. They’re a bit conspicuous on the subway with their bulging backpacks and long handled shovels.
Meanwhile Dad’s mashed potatoes overflow the pot, streaming down the oven sides and floor, a tater river. The boys fill buckets and buckets with mashed potatoes and burn them in the apartment building incinerator. The buried potatoes take root, grow to unprecedented size and terrorize the city, telescoping vines grabbing victims by the ankles, covering buildings, and clogging the subway. During a San Dunstan Duodenum baseball game a colossal spud erupts from under the outfield and lifts a player several stories high enabling him to catch a baseball headed for the upper deck.
After a series of misadventures, near misses, arrests, and some gamesmanship with the Chief of Police, the boys are confronted at their home by Dr. Nardo and his henchman.
The boys are saved from the brink of calamity on the roof’s edge when potato tendrils embrace Dr. Nardo and Ralphie. When the town’s situation is at its bleakest, Mrs. Mayhew obtains Nardo’s antidote to the growth formula, replicates it, and injects a killer potato “tentacle.” Since all the potatoes are connected to a common root system, the city is saved. Luckily nobody had eaten the tainted mashed potatoes or some fries made with potatoes found in the park by a restaurant employee. On the last page of the book the family looks for the lost little Lhasa apso. Yappie’s found in the walk-in closet. He’s not little any more. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Random thoughts
Since I’m chronologically an adult, at least, I attempted to read this book from a juvenile’s perspective. Some would say this wasn’t much of a leap. From that perspective I would have liked to have seen a few illustrations in the book, perhaps at the beginning of most chapters. The short chapters are great for reading between classes, on the school bus, in the cafeteria, or even during science class.
The writer does an excellent job creating suspense, ending almost every chapter with a device intended to instill suspense and motivate the reader to read further. Chapters end with questions, foreshadowing, hints of an imminent revelation, characters in danger or predicaments, conflict, doubt and other types of suspense tools. Because the chapters are so short, it’s easy to convince oneself to read “one more chapter.”
This first person account is written in a casual style from Arnold’s perspective. Kids relate to kid narrators. Even in my juvenile persona the excessive use of sentence fragments and corny, trite similes annoyed me. Max’s constant wise cracking, rule breaking, and general lack of respect for authority also irked me. Maybe that’s because as a juvenile I was ALWAYS the model student and good citizen.
The author’s use of words such as snot, booger, and humongousprobably appeals to his target audience. His page and a half dialogue between the kids and the crooks, ala the classic Abbot and Costello “Who’s on First sketch, didn’t tickle my funny bone.
Attack of the Killer Potatoes is a silly, preposterous book, its plot driven by flat, stereotyped characters, its dialogue rife with cliches and trite similes, its essence never to be mistaken for great literature. The author’s intent is not to impress or showcase his literary skills, but rather to entertain and motivate young readers. Some might even absorb a subconscious lesson about the consequences of stealing, rule breaking, or not listening to Mom. I think this is a worthwhile book for fourth through eighth graders with its reasonable vocabulary choices, engaging plot, and most importantly, its POTATO theme.
Reading level – Ages 9-12
Pages 109
Language – English
Dimensions – 7.6 by 5.3 by .4 inches
Thanks, Ariane, for adding this book to Epinions.
Recommended:
Yes
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