From Publishers Weekly
This first novel by the author of Crocodile Smile and Follow the Moon brims with clich?s and hoary plot turns. The narrator, 11-year-old Guy Strang, couldn't be more unlike his flamboyant mother and geeky dad, who constantly embarrass him. Naturally, he concludes that he must have been switched at birth, and when he discovers that Bob-o Smith, "the weirdest, craziest, most unappealing character in the whole class," shares his birthday and was born at the same hospital, the case seems airtight. Guy and the credulous Bob-o swap homes for a weekend on the pretext of a school project. The hitch arises when Bob-o is far happier with the new arrangement than Guy, who is bored with the stultifyingly bland Smiths. The novel misses no chances for middle-grade yucksAfrom Bob-o's ceaseless nose picking to Mr. Strang's habit of inhaling oysters through his nostrils and expelling them from his mouthAand the climactic showdown is a virtual chain reaction of buffoonery. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6Eleven-year-old Guy Strang is convinced that he was switched at birth with some other baby. How else can he explain how he ended up with his parents. His mother dances around the house in lime-green stretch pants, a fluorescent orange top, and see-through high heels with plastic fish inside and his father likes to suck oysters up his nose and then spit them out of his mouthin public. Guy is just a regular guy who wants ordinary parents. So when his best friend Buzz comes up with a plan to search the school records to see if any of the other sixth graders share Guys birthday, he agrees to go along with it. They find an exact match: Robert Smith (known by one and all as Bob-o), the weirdest kid in school. And, Bob-os parents are as ordinary as Guys are eccentric. Could Guys theory be true? He arranges to switch places with Bob-o for a weekend (a supposed class project) and finds that there is no place like home. The plot moves quickly, is written in a breezy style, and has a likable and well-drawn main character. Guys embarrassment over his parents behavior is something that most children have experienced at one time or another. However, there is never any doubt that his folks love and treasure him. A subplot concerns Guys efforts to turn Bob-o into a normal sixth grader. A clever take on the search for ones identity.Terrie Dorio, Santa Monica Public Library, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
