From School Library Journal
Grade 3-5?Soup is back and causing more trouble for the good folks of Learning, VT. Here, he volunteers his sidekick, Rob Peck, to write a Fourth of July play that is historically accurate. Unfortunately, no one in the town can seem to agree on what actually happened back in 1776. Rob remains the level-headed character that readers love and with whom they can identify, but as usual, Soup is the one who steals the show. The action is fast paced as readers try to unravel the mystery of the secret ingredient Soup has in mind to make this play a blast. And a blast it is! Well written and fun to read.?Connie Pierce, Signal Mountain Public Library, TN
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Gr. 4^-7. In his fourteenth story about Soup and sidekick Rob, Peck resorts to nonstop one-liners, double entendres, and slapstick humor involving dropped drawers, pigeon droppings and curvaceous "patootsies," while he lambastes political correctness and historical revisionists. This time the duo are writing the script for Learning's Fourth of July pageant, a task that necessitates discovering what really happened in 1776, then rewriting history, manipulating a cast of befuddled townspeople, professional wrestlers, and loutish lumberjacks. Adults may find Peck's humor is heavy-handed and sophomoric ("My soul throbbed like a happy hemorrhoid" ), with Soup portrayed as a bombastic, hyperactive hellion, and Rob a dithering, compliant companion. Preteens, however, may not be quite so critical and will probably find the silly characters and predictable mayhem hilarious.
Chris Sherman
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.