Customer Reviews

The Talent Show

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

 

 

THE TALENT SHOW by Dan Gutman is about two tornados that hit the city of Cape Bluff, Kansas. The kids at Cape Bluff Elementary School voted on whether or not to have a talent show or a rubble to rebuild the school. The deciding vote was a talent show. None of the kids knew there were so many people that wanted to be in the talent show.

Everyone is showing off their talents and doing their part such as: The Blufftones, a band that plays old-time rock and roll; Julia, a fourth grader who was on the pointe at The Fontaneau Ballet Studio, with a song by Justin Chanda, a multimillion-selling pop star; Don Potash, a sixth grader who did a stand-up comedy act; Richard Ackoon, a third grader who is an aspiring rap star and does his own rap, and "Honest Dave" Gale who owns a car dealership named Honest Dave's Hummer Heaven, who donated the car for the winner and their parent's.

THE TALENT SHOW by Dan Gutman was an okay read. The story is about a small town that is hit by two tornados, one before the talent show and the other in the middle of the talent show. It is also about how the kids raised money from the talent show to rebuild their school. It was an okay read because it was a little slow to get into. It was not quite what I expected after reading most of Mr. Gutman's other books. I personally am a fan of his SCHOOL DAZE series (the titles rhyme), which I would recommend for other kids to read.

This book was provided by the Amazon Vine program for review purposes.

Reviewed by Kalia
APOOO BookClub

My nine-year-old son is a reluctant reader, but Dan Gutman's "My Weird School" series are books he can't wait to get his hands on. Told in the first person by a snarky second-grader who proudly announces "I hate school," that series gives my son a protagonist to whom he can relate, some funny set-ups, and a villain or two to root against.

Now that he's ready for more challenging materials, I was glad to see Gutman had written a book for older readers - The Talent Show. I hoped it would continue to build on Gutman's strengths for writing likable, relatable characters with an incremental increase in its level of difficultly.

Unfortunately, The Talent Show wasn't that book. For one thing, the word choices were more sophisticated than I anticipated. The first page of the book contains about 50-60 words, among them: "Stratocaster," ""on pointe," "The Fontaneua Ballet Studio," "releves," "tour jetes," "allegro," and "Giselle." My son stumbled over every one of those words, and for good reason. It turned him off to wanting to read more.

In those opening pages, Gutman establishes what several of his lead characters were doing "When the Tornado Hit..." One sixth grade character is in the shower singing "I Will Survive," another boy in her class is watching a Jerry Seinfeld DVD, and the fifth-grader practicing his Stratocaster is playing "Stairway to Heaven."

These seemed like more missed opportunities to draw in the target audience. My son didn't get any of those references. Why are the characters into music and comedians from over a decade ago? It's strangely off-putting. My kid likes The Jonas Brothers and Spongebob, not Gloria Gaynor and Seinfeld.

We read another thirty or so pages but the book never grabbed him. Me, either. At that point, there still wasn't a major character defined. The jumps of the third-person omniscient narrator were confusing. The focus on the tornado and its aftermath were kind of scary. Although no one dies, there is the threat of death, and real destruction and injury. "Why is the story so sad," my son asked. "And where's the 'talent show?'"

We didn't stick around to find out. Maybe it gets better, but without a strong point of view or a single character he could get behind, my son wasn't interested. Reading it became a chore. Gutman's a talented guy, but The Talent Show didn't play to his strengths.

Cape Bluff, Kansas, a working class town located in the heart of Tornado Alley, had a long history of surviving physical and economic devastation. Although the population had dwindled to the most resilient folks, the townspeople were fed up when the latest tornado struck, the worst ever in Cape Bluff's history and the cause of some $34 million worth of damage. Numerous people who could not afford insurance faced total destruction to their homes and cars, businesses suffered extensive damage, and the elementary school library lost all its books.

Resiliency, though, took hold once again when the principal suggested they hold a talent show to lift spirits and raise money for the library. The idea caught on quickly, especially when a number of local businesspeople offered free goods and services to support the show's production, including a brand new Hummer for the grand prize. Cape Bluff's student body included a number of budding singers, dancers, musicians, and comedians, virtually all of whom dreamed about shining on stage and bringing home that Hummer. Who would win, and could the show raise the money they needed?

The Talent Show offers up an entertaining blend of suspense and adolescent drama as a bunch of talented youngsters go head to head to become the next Cape Bluff Idol. Cleverly intertwined with the story are a number of economics ideas related to class, scarcity, small businesses, and fundraising. The book will likely encourage readers to think about how they could use their own talents to raise money for a good cause.

My 10 year old son and I have read every book in the "My Weird School" series, and the "My Weird School Daze" series. We LOVE Dan Gutman books. I credit Dan Gutman for instilling a love of reading in my son when he was at a critical point in his reading development. Though we would read for hours a day, picture books were becoming too babyish for him, and he stepped in to chapter books reluctantly. But as soon as we discovered Mr. Gutman's books, my son was hooked on reading again. We would read the books together, always finished the book the same day we got it (how on Earth could you put one down?) and laugh our way through the books, excited about what was going to happen in the next book. So, when I saw this book offered through Vine, I immediately ordered it, hoping it would be the same caliber of writing as all of the other books we have ready by the author. The following review is what my son thought about "The Talent Show".

1. He did not think it was a bad book, but he did not think it was a great book either. "So-so" is the word he used to describe how he felt about it. He struggled to finish the book, not due to a lack of time, but interest. I think he got his hopes up when he saw Dan Gutman wrote the book. He expected it would be a funny book like the "Weird School" series, but it was not.

2. He liked that the kids thought the idea of doing a talent show to help raise money to rebuild the school after a tornado struck the town was pretty cool. He liked that kids pitched in to help make the town a better place for everyone, despite the disaster that left the town in a shambles.

3. Like the magician (boy) in the talent show, my son has a bit of stage fright when he is asked to perform in front of a group of people. He was really happy that the boy overcame his stage freight to be able to perform in the talent show. Score one for the underdog! As he read that part of the story, he said he could totally relate to what the boy was going through. (Major points for adding this to the book from me--maybe this will help my son in the future when he needs to be in front of a group again.)

4. He did not like that the "magician" boy hurt his arm in the tornado. He did not like seeing another child get hurt.

5. He wished it could have been a funnier book to read, and that it seemed to drag out a little bit too long.

And that was about all he had to say about the book. It did not appear to be a very memorable book for him to read, because he had a hard time recounting what he liked about the story to help me write this review. When he likes a book, he can tends to retell the entire story to you if you ask him what he liked about the book. This one did not seem to leave a lasting impression with him, and he struggled to come up with things he thought were interesting, funny, or compelling about the story.

I appreciate that Mr. Gutman is targeting a different audience for this type of book (middle readers) than the previous series he has written for younger children, but as readers grow in to an "older" set of books, I think they look to their favorite authors and expect the books to be a certain way, and this one did not follow the typical Dan Gutman format. If your child is a big "Weird School" fan like my son, he may (or may not!) be disappointed by the lack of humor in this book. Check out a copy from the library first to see what the reaction to the book might be. Unlike the "Weird School" series that we read and re-read, this one is going on my son's bookshelf, and I doubt it will be looked at again.

Things my 10YO had to say about "The Talent Show":
+ "It was pretty good, but not as good as Getting Air"
+ "There's a tornado and the school principal decides to put on a talent to earn money for rebuiling the city."
+ "The characters seemed like real people"
+ "Had a decent plot"

Like most Dan Gutman stories, this one was full of humor and lots of fun to read. The tornado action did not seem very real but the characters did. Dan Gutman doesn't tend to allow reality to interfer with his stories anyway. I think that is why kids enjoy his books so much. THere were a few "bigger words" in this book, but my son just asked me what they meant or looked them up in the dictionary, never realizing that he'd just been forced to learn something.

WHile this book was not the best Dan Gutman ever published, it is still a worth reading.

As a 3rd grade teacher, I'm always on the lookout for books that will capture young readers. Dan Gutman always does a great job in that department, especially reluctant readers. Kids in my class have become readers reading his "Weird School" series! No, this is not one of them, and if you are looking for AJ and friends in this book, you will be disappointed. It is a higher reading level book than the other series, which I think is the beauty in Dan Gutman's books. I've had many kids who start with the "Weird School" books, who then are looking for the next step up with a familiar author friend.

"The Talent Show" reminds me of the ensemble sit-com TV shows that are out there as you get to see all of these different characters who are united by the story line (a talent show to earn money after a tornado hit the school). Everyone is working for a common goal. As an aside, our school had a fire this past year, and I see many similarities on how people can come together to unite after an unfortunate situation. Also, as a teacher at a Maryland "Green" School, I still chuckle over the humorous ending (ah, but I can't give it away!). It really makes the book!! I know some people commented about some vocabulary issues...I didn't see that. Plus, even 3rd, 4th, 5th graders benefit from partner reading/reading alouds (it builds listening vocabulary)--many parents forget that and stop reading to children when they're old enough to read to themselves. I most certainly see this as a great book, and can't wait to read it aloud to my 3rd grade classroom because there are some elements I wish to discuss with them!!

I think you'd be remiss to dismiss this book!!

I have friends with children who are avid readers, these are relatively young kids who read several grades above the actual grade they're in. So I'm always on the lookout for stuff to give them. Living, as we do, in earthquake country the story of a town pulling together to benefit a school with the kids taking an active part in that seemed like a good candidate for something to gift the young readers around me.

The early events might be scary for young readers who read at a higher level then their actual grade. This is hardly a problem for older readers actually in the grades this book is meant for, but there are also issues with the pacing. It takes too long for the story to get to the talent show for which it's named. I'm a grown up adult woman, there are only 224 pages, and even I was starting to wonder when they were going to get to the actual Talent Show.

I'm not sure this book will hold a child's attention. But I'm going to pass it along and encourage the kids to write their own reviews.

This book is not up to the standard set by some of Dan Gutman's other books like My Weird School Daze #10: Miss Mary Is Scary! and his other Weird School series books. Here, the vocabulary and syntax is geared to younger elementary age kids while the story is more appropriate to fifth or sixth grade or even older children. The story is about a small town in Tornado Alley that is decimated by a tornado. The people of the town band together to raise funds for rebuilding by putting on a talent show. The author makes the mistake of telling, not showing. There are just too many facts, too much dry exposition early on. The scenes about the tornado touching down have absolutely no emotional impact. While the individual tales about the kids who participate in the talent show are cute, the book reads as if it is still in outline form, not as a well-developed story. Also, there are many references to popular music of the 70's that I don't think many kids will understand. There is no clear villain and no clear protagonist, either.

My 9-year-old son was so excited when the book arrived - he's a huge Gutman fan. He put it down after a few pages and said he wasn't interested in reading it.