Summer Reading Is Killing Me (Time Warp Trio) [Hardcover]

Jon Scieszka (Author), Lane Smith (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up | Series: Time Warp Trio

The Time Warp Trio's had some really warped adventures, but this one takes the cake.

Joe, Fred, and Sam have no idea why they've been transported to a playground. All they know is that there's a 250-pound chicken and it's headed straight for them While Joe's racking his brains for the magic words to stop a charging chicken, he suddenly has a flash of what's going to happen next. It's exactly like the book he just read. Turns out Fred put their summer reading list inside The Book (the magic one, that is) -- and now they're destined to spend their summer living stories that were only meant to be read. Only one thing is clear: writing a back-to-school book report will be no sweat.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sam, Fred, and Joe--the Time Warp Trio--find themselves face-to-beak with a giant, 266-pound chicken ... who, unfortunately, looks hungry. As the chicken begins to chase them, the boys realize with horror that they are smack-dab in the middle of Daniel Pinkwater's The Hoboken Chicken Emergency! How did they get there? Fred accidentally stuck the school's summer reading list between the pages of "The Book"--a time-warping, green-mist-expelling book that triggers time travel in all of Jon Scieszka's well-loved Time Warp Trio action-adventures.

In Summer Reading Is Killing Me!, illustrated by innovative artist Lane Smith, the boys find themselves trapped in a dreadfully skewed literary world where Joe, the narrator, says "I saw Homer Price being carried by the Headless Horseman. Dracula was dragging Winnie the Pooh in a headlock. Mr. Twit was breaking Harold's Purple Crayon." It becomes the boys' charge to find "The Book" and yank the summer reading list out of it before children's literature is destroyed forever as the "bad" characters knock off the "good" characters and take over the stories. The literary references accelerate to a breakneck pace: "We stepped over a very hungry caterpillar eating his way through a dictionary.... We made our way through a crowd of Robinson Crusoe, a blue moose, Julie with some wolves, a snowman, a plain and tall lady named Sarah, a kid with a hatchet, and a very confused-looking Robin Hood helping Eeyore reattach his tail." Whether or not young readers register every literary allusion is inconsequential--Summer Reading Is Killing Me! is a rollicking, sarcastic, ultraweird, suspenseful adventure that kids will like regardless. And for teachers, parents, and librarians who are deeply enmeshed in kid-erature--it's purely delicious. (Ages 8 and older) --Karin Snelson

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5?The Time Warp Trio is back. This time, the mayhem begins when Fred puts their school's summer reading list in The Book, the mysterious tome that has magically transported the boys to the past and the future in previous escapades. This causes Fred, Sam, and Joe to encounter the Hoboken Chicken, George and Martha, Peter Rabbit, Curious George, Frog and Toad, and a host of other children's book characters. It seems that the bad characters?the Twits, Long John Silver, the Wild Things, etc., all led by a maniacal Teddy Bear?have decided to do away with the good ones. The boys initially manage to convince the villains that they, too, are villains from an action-adventure series (whose author "starts with an s...maybe...?"), but they are soon found out. It takes a girl (Laura Ingalls? Anne of Green Gables? one of the Little Women??they can't tell since they haven't read them!) to help them find The Book so that they can put an end to the shenanigans. Nonstop action and lots of laughs prevail throughout as the friends try to find their way out of their current predicament. Smith's black-and-white illustrations are filled with his traditional brand of zany humor. The literary references will delight teachers and librarians, and perhaps inspire readers to learn more about those characters (good or bad) unfamiliar to them.
Robin L. Gibson, Muskingum County Library System, Zanesville, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile; F edition (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670880418
• ISBN-13: 978-0670880416
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,497,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jon Scieszka was born in Flint, Michigan on September 8th, 1954. He grew up with five brothers, has the same birthday as Peter Sellers and the Virgin Mary, and a sneaking suspicion that the characters in his Dick and Jane reader were not of this world. Those plain facts, plus his elementary school principal dad, Louis, his registered nurse mom, Shirley (who once took Jon's Cub Scout den on a field trip to the prenatal ward), Mad Magazine, four years of pre-med undergrad, "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show", an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University, Robert Benchley, five years of painting apartments in New York City, his lovely wife Jeri Hansen who introduced him to Molly Leach and Lane Smith, Green Eggs and Ham, his teenage daughter Casey and almost teenage son Jake, ten years of teaching a little bit of everything from first grade to eighth grade, and the last twenty years of living in Brooklyn...are just some of Jon's answers to the questions, "Where do you get your ideas?" and/or "How did you become a writer?" I don't know, just because, none of your beeswax, and flapdoodle poppycock and balderdash are some more of Jon's answers to questions you can imagine on your own. Jon met up with Lane Smith around 1986 or so, and nothing has been the same since. Their first book, the wiseguy fairy tale retelling, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! was initially rejected by most publishers as "too weird" and "too sophisticated". Published by Viking in 1989, The True Story has now sold over a million copies, been translated into ten languages, and been called a "classic picture book for all ages". Jon and Lane's The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992) took the world of the picture book a few steps further. Goofing with the conventions of fairy tales and even being a book, The Stinky Cheese Man became a household word, sold another mess of copies in multiple languages, offended a few purists, and still managed to win a Caldecott Honor medal. Math Curse (1995) further stretched the notion of what subjects make good picture books, selling more books faster than either 3 Little Pigs or Stinky Cheese, and winning a whole slew of awards --all for a book full of mathematics.More recently, Jon and Lane have resurrected fables (in the smart, funny, and a little bit wicked way Aesop would have wanted them) in their latest collaboration, Squids Will Be Squids (1998). No telling where they might take the picture book next. Someone once wrote, "Jon Scieszka has forever changed the face of children's literature." And while there is still some confusion over exactly who that someone was, and whether children's literature does, in fact, have a face, most would agree-from The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! to Squids Will Be Squids, since Scieszka put pen to paper, children's literature sure has been...different.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Terrific!, June 4, 2000

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer Reading Is Killing Me (Time Warp Trio) (Hardcover)

The Time Warp Trio set out on their best adventure yet, when Fred leaves their school's summer reading list stuck inside the pages of their time travel vehicle, "The Book". Now, the three are stuck in literature, where the bad and evil characters are out to get all the good ones and take over the stories. This is a wonderfully written, witty, funny story that will have your kids laughing out loud. Perfect for third through sixth graders, kids will recognize characters from stories they've read and some that parents and teachers have read to them. A page turner to the end, this is the perfect book to read once the school year has ended. The only negative thing I can say about Summer Reading is Killing Me, is that it's over way too soon.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's the best of the Time Warp Trio!, July 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Summer Reading Is Killing Me (Time Warp Trio) (Hardcover)

As a Michigan teacher who has met the author personally I look forward to each new book Scieszka writes. I especially enjoyed reading the latest adventures of Scieszka's Time Warp Trio. The adventure is fast paced and I caught myself laughing out loud as I read. In my classroom I will read it at the beginning of the school year and at the end of the year to arouse interest in the many book characters mentioned in the story.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is one Time Warp Trio book you won't want to miss., June 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Summer Reading Is Killing Me (Time Warp Trio) (Hardcover)

I recommend this book to any boy in third or fourth grade. It was a very funny book to read and was adventuous also. After reading many other Time Warp Trio books, this was a welcome addition to my summer reading list. P. S. After reading this book pay good attention to the summer reading at the end. It will make you chuckle!