The Floods #1: Good Neighbors [Hardcover]

Colin Thompson (Author), Crab Scrambly (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2008 | Age Level: 8 and up | Series: The Floods (Book 1)

The Floods may bury relatives in their backyard, grow cobwebs in every room, and eat slugs for breakfast, but this loving family of wizards and witches is a delight to have next door...unlike their neighbors the Dents—a mean, nasty family that shatters the calm of the whole block.

Maybe a little of the Floods' magic will cure the Dents of their obnoxious ways. And if not, a lot of magic will rid the neighborhood of the Dents once and for all!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The Addams Family returns, this time as the Floods, an exceptionally strange family of wizards and witches that includes a beautiful mother, Mordonna; a child completely covered in hair; and Betty, the normal-looking one. While essentially goodhearted, the Floods suffer from the worst neighbors ever. The Dents steal cars, fight, and make so much noise the Floods cannot concentrate on their magic. Mrs. Dent even foregoes searching for her lost son to watch her favorite television show, Mega-Extreme Celebrity Really Dumb Fat Ugly Idiot Loser Makeover (a fair example of the book’s broad humor). Systematically, the Floods eliminate each of the Dents in a variety of ways, mostly benign. Footnotes dot the text but do not always appear on the same page as the superscript numbers. The endnotes include a summary of each character and pet. Middle-graders will enjoy the over-the-top humor, gore, and magic and look forward to others in the planned series. Grades 3-6. --Suzanne Harold

Review

"Its mix of wizardry and wisecracks make it the next best thing to a new Harry Potter book." (tvguide.com )

"Crowd pleaser." (Kirkus Reviews )

"Middle-graders clamoring for more magic books may enjoy its over-the-top humor and magic." (ALA Booklist )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061131962
• ISBN-13: 978-0061131967
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,472,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book One of the Floods Series, February 17, 2009

By 

365andMe - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Floods #1: Good Neighbors (Paperback)

If you mixed the Munsters with the Addams family, the end result might be the Floods family. They aren't your typical neighbors. For one, they eat bugs and eyes - all kinds of eyes, frog's especially. They are a family of wizards and witches and the neighborhood is afraid of them. In reality, they are actually kind.

Now meet the Dents. They are the new family who moved in. Although they look normal, compared to the Floods, the Dent are horrible neighbors. Now the Floods will have to figure out a way to get rid of the Dents once and for all.

The book is cool, but in a gross way. I plan to continue on reading this series. The next book is The Floods #2: School Plot.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrid! Dysfunctionally Absurd Ideas & Opinions!, August 23, 2010

By 

xoxo "woodfairy" (AL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Floods #1: Good Neighbors (Hardcover)

If you truly like Harry Potter then the only thing this book might have in common is that Hogwarts might can use it to burn for fuel! Truly! I can't believe this book was mentioned in the same sentence as Harry Potter. The footnotes are obviously a flashback of the author & his twisted sense of what he thinks makes the world go round.

I mean for real, it mentions a child who is repeatedly slapped by his mother in a store so he will scream and divert attention so his mother can then steal cigarrettes while the child is screaming. Then the footnotes blame this incident on the mother being hit & abused as a child and makes the point that if you were abused as a child you'll abuse your own children and THAT IS NOT TRUE!

There are more twisted ideas & opinions of this author pulled out throughout this book so it's not really a good read at all. According to this tale there are 2 ways to make babies and I'd rather my children learn that from me and not this style of sick prose.

It's not really written in story form either and it's more a they were, they did, it was , and I don't think I have ever came across such illwritten literature targeted to a young audience.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What Tripe!, January 10, 2011

By 

Should I Buy It? - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Floods #1: Good Neighbors (Hardcover)

Seemed to be a clever premise at the outset until - a page or two in - I realized the book is a thinly veiled ripoff of the Addams Family, the Munsters, with a bit of Harry Potter thrown in for good measure. The author's over-the-top "humor" (it's not even funny) and his relentlessly trying to outdo himself with the gross factor (i.e., use of cockroaches, the foods the Floods eat, etc.) caused many eye-roll moments when reading. The Dent family characters are extreme versions of the Dursleys, but one can't develop any interest in them, or even rise to the occasion of despising them, as the characterizations are so underdeveloped yet overly cliche. Also, when the Dents get their just deserts, I didn't privately cackle with satisfaction and glee ... I had more of a "puh-leeze" response.

The author's trying too hard to be original and out there. Don't waste your time with this book. I can't assign zero stars to this review.