Customer Reviews

Punished!

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Punished! tells the story of a boy named Logan who accidently collides with the mysterious Professor Wordsworth in the reference section of the library. After saying he is sorry, Wordsworth states that words are not always enough. Wordsworth decides that Logan needs to be "punished" and blows dust on him from an old book.

Immediately after his encounter with Professor Wordsworth, Logan realizes something is definitely wrong... everyone groans after he talks. Analyzing his speech, Logan now realizes he is speaking in puns. He tracks down Wordsworth a the library and asks how he can undo his "punishment". The professor then sets Logan to three separate tasks. First he has to gather oxymorons, then anagrams, and finally palindromes and bring them back to the professor in time, or Logan can't be cured.

I know of David Lubar from his short story collections In The Land of the Lawn Weenies and The Invasion of the Road Weenies. Those stories are somewhat twisted and mildly creepy, but appeal to a lot of my fourth grade students. Punished! doesn't play up the creepiness found in Lubar's short stories, but has some similar mysterious elements. The novel's action moves along and is quite predictable, but this book would appeal to third through fifth graders who enjoy wordplay. Recommended, but not essential.

I think this book is really funny. It is about a boy named Logan who has a friend named Benedict. Benedict takes him to the library and they play tag. Logan runs into a man in the library, and the man blows magic dust at him. Then Logan can only talk in puns unless he is talking to the man or only says three words per sentence. The way he says the puns in sentences make me laugh. An example of him saying a pun is when the teacher asks him to use the word industry in a sentence and he says, "The cat got got stuck up industry and wouldn't come down."

When he asks the man how he can stop saying puns, he tells him to find seven oxymorons in twenty-four hours. After he finds all of them, the man tells him to find seven anagrams. He still finds all of them. His last test to get rid of his puns is to find seven palindromes. He finds six, but can't find the seventh. Right before time is up, he learns that the man's friends call him Bob, so Logan gets cured and has a pizza party at a pizzeria with Benedict.

I'm in the 3rd grade and i just read Punished...wow! it's the best one on my reading record sheet! When Logan goes to the library to study for his research, someone stops him from running in the library and he gets his face puffed up with fairy dust which scrambled his brains. Now, whenever he talks a pun comes out. To cure this evil curse, he must go out and find certain types of words. I like it because everything in the story ties together (if you know what I mean.)

My 7th grade English class was doing a unit on wordplay and puns. I read this to them and they moaned and groaned, BUT they understood the puns and laughed a lot. Fun book and quick reading.

My son loves this book and surprises me all the time with the tidbits he picks up from it.

First let me start this review by saying....David Lubar is clever, funny and my son loves him. We own the "Weenie" series and the books are read over and over. The premise of this book intrigued me and I had it in my cart to buy...but I held off and I'm glad I did! I have two boys who are AVID readers. They read so much my pocketbook can't keep up. I try to use the library for books that will be read once...and quickly. This is that type of book. First it's small...really small for a middle reader. The size of the type inside the book, the spacing and the general dimensions of the page, pretty much stretch this book to an "acceptable" selling size but if it was printed the way most books are...it would have half the page count. Second, I try to read what my kids are reading....so I can see what they are experiencing and I love young adult/kid lit. This book is more of a short story than a true chapter book. It would be great in a compilation, but as a stand alone I was disappointed with the character development (pretty much none), the and the plot was very very thin. Now this is NOT to say the book is without merit. Your child will learn about all different types of words...which is great....and will be entertained while reading. It is really worth picking up at your local library....but I wouldn't spend the money if you have a child that can read books quickly....because literally my son read it in an hour. (side note... the paperback is better priced than the hardcover... if I had spent the jacket price for this book I would have felt very ripped off). Read the kid reviews....they liked it....and I think all kids should read it...they will learn something....just save your money for a juicier, better read! ( if you like the premise of this book read the Phantom Tollbooth...now that's a wonderfully written and entertaining book about words and numbers!)

Is a good read for my daughter. She has read it several times and still won't let anybody else have it!

Cute book! I used it to review figurative language for summer school. It really helped the students to remember puns, anagrams, etc.

This book was recommended to me by my 5th grade students. I just love it when my students recommend books for me to read.

This is great book to teach students about word plays. It is an excellent read-a-loud that can be followed up with activities allowing the students to create their own puns, anagrams, oxymorons, and palindromes. WOW! What a fun lesson.

Teachers will enjoy the teachable moments and students will enjoy the humor.

Recommended for Grades 3 and up (though it might work well as a read-aloud to 2nd graders. They will find the word play funny, even if they don't quite understand it all.)

This is a fun book to be used as a read aloud in class or as a guided reading book. The main character weaves his way through 3 vocabulary quests in order to remove his Pun-ished spell. My students enjoyed writing their own puns, oxymorons, anagrams and palindromes!