Rating: Not for me

Reading Level: Mid-late Elementary

A kid (and his parents) blunder through attempts to win records in the Guinness Book of World Records. The writing is catchy, but the content is not my favorite in terms of wholesome substance.

Possible Concerns:

  • Lying/Fraud. Milo sneaks into the principal’s office to send an email to the counselor from the principal’s email. There ends up being litte/no consequences for this action even after the principal and parents find out. In general there is a lot of lying to adults and friends to avoid facing consequences. I was stressed and wanted to yell, “Just come clean!!!! Be honest!!! Man up!”
  • Deceit. Milo puts itching powder in his parents’ costumes to try to dissuade them from embarrasing him. He also siphons their gas tank.
  • Hindu holiday: Diwali. Milo works on homework asking: What is Diwali and how is it celebrated? Milo says, “I already know the answer to this because we have a party to celebrate Diwali at school every year, but I still copy the info from the article. On my paper, I write, ‘The Festival of Lights. Diwali gets it name from the row of clay lamps set outside homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness.'”
  • Potty/Body Humor. There is a mass food poisoning at a major gathering, and so smells, sights, and sounds of puke and diarrhea are prominently described. Also questions of how to wipe your bottom if you’re growing nails for a Guinness record.
  • Stranger Danger. Milo hops into a car with an unknown driver because his new friend tells him it’s ok.
  • Death of a Father. Milo’s brother-in-law was unexpectedly killed. The story goes deeply into coping strategies for his widowed sister and fatherless nephew, who is his same age.
  • Truancy/Devaluation of School? Milo misses a lot of school (with his parents’ permission, as a part of seeking to break records). His parents write a note and say it is an excused absence, but it seems a little bit like they aren’t valuing his ability to succeed in school. On the flip side, the school teacher has a migraine and doesn’t want to be disturbed, which seems to kind of underline a general sense that school is in many ways a waste of time.

Things I liked:

  • Records. Tidbits of factoids regarding quirky records that have been won.
  • Unconventional family ages. Milo is about the same age as his nephew.
  • Family. Milo generally has a good relationship with his parents, much-older sister, and same-aged nephew, even though he deceives them sometimes in the story of this book, and those good relationships are somewhat on trial during the conflict the book presents.
  • Learning from Mistakes; Failures don’t define us. In about the last chapter or so, Milo comes to realize that his mistakes don’t define him. He is not a failure even if he’s had a lot of failures. That said, the book ends quite abruptly with this realization; I don’t know if there is enough time with it to really make an impact on the reader.

You could probably do worse, but in general it’s not my favorite and I really wouldn’t want my kid to spend their time reading about kids lying to their friends/family and doing really deceitful things to the adults in authority instead of just coming clean.