The Adventures of Blue Avenger [Paperback]

Norma Howe (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Henry Holt; First edition (January 1, 1999)
• ASIN: B0011DNR82
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,334,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, inventive book for young teens, June 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Adventures of Blue Avenger (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book, which is fairly well described by the reviews above. It is a kind of real-life fantasy, where the main character adopts a comic-book superhero persona and immediately starts living a comic-book superhero type existence, where he is instantly popular at school and nothing serious goes wrong. (In some ways, this book is like a teen version of Laurie Colwin's Happy All the Time. There is no traditional conflict, not among peers, not between kids and parents or teachers or society. There are tragedies, but they are all in the past.) The themes are mature: sexuality (a very sweet version of it), personal responsibility, the ways in which people advance themselves at a cost to others. The author is very ambitious, and not all of what she tries works, but a great deal does. One issue: my wife mistakenly bought this for our 10-year-old son, for whom it is clearly inappropriate. It is not so clear what group of kids should read it. Kids old enough to appreciate a condom-buying scene (a high point in the book that is clearly, if coyly, divorced from the conventional reasons for buying condoms) and smart enough to like the frequent philosophical discussions and ironic authorial intrusions will generally have moved beyond Young Adult fiction. They may resent the undercurrent of goody-goody preachiness (the protagonists predictably and enthusiastically opt for chastity; there is a lot of anti-vulgarity propaganda) and the odd reticence that produces a great deal of very unspecific talk about sex ("He pondered the difference between love and lust." "Their hormones were raging.") Basically, this is a book that has to fit into a narrow window of opportunity in which kids have enough interest and information to care about the themes but will find the coyness comforting. Also, although it is not a "girls' book" per se, girls will probably like it a lot more than boys - it is really a girls' fantasy about the perfect boyfriend.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book that you _really_ can't put down!, July 1, 1999

By 

Lynn Weatherby - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of Blue Avenger (Hardcover)

The Adventures of Blue Avenger is overall a very good read. It starts off fairly intriguing, and the plot continues to develope chapter after chapter. This is not a book where you will skip parts, as I... er... well, tend to do.

This novel has great character development. The main characters are lively, intelligent, and people who you'd like to be friends with. An interesting thing about this book is how the social life of Blue (the main character) is portrayed. It seems as if there really isn't any teenage nastiness, or at least not much of it. I think this makes it better than the average book, even though it may not be that realistic. It's refreshing to not read about teen social problems every single page.

Another great thing about this book is the way it works through philosophical questions, mainly the ever-lasting predestination versus free will question. The author brings the questions up throughout the story just enough to keep it largely interesting, but not overkill.

I would say that this book is more appropriate for ages 12 and up. Some of the subjects in it are not something you'd want an eight year-old to read, despite the cover.

All in all, I would recomend it to anyone who is looking for great summer reading. I know that sounds really vague, but it's the truth. I was skeptical when it arrived, but as soon as I started reading it, I was hooked!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who would have thought..., November 25, 2000

By 

arkm (Kendall Park, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of Blue Avenger (Paperback)

that a book on such a serious topic could be so much fun to read? If someone had come up to me and asked "Would you like to read a book about free will?", I probably would have just said "No way." But Blue Avenger turned out to be one of the funniest things I've read in a while. It all starts on his 16th birthday, when David Schumacher decides to change his name to Blue Avenger after a character he created. In doing so he becomes a unique sort of superhero, simply solving everyday problems, like finding the perfect lemon meringue pie recipe. (I tried it, and it really honestly doesn't weep.)There's plenty of humor along the way, as in the memorable condom-buying scene and classroom discussion. There's a romantic side, thanks to his close friend Omaha Nebraska Brown. There are small seemingly meaningless moments that come back in the end, somewhat like Harry Potter. And of course, there's the free will issue- it really makes you think without taking over the story or getting boring and technical. I knew very little about free will before reading this, but now I can honestly say I have an opinion on it.

Is it realistic? Not really. But will it make you think and laugh out loud? You bet. And that's the whole point anyway.