Customer Reviews

I Want To Go Home! (Apple Paperbacks)

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book starts out strong and doesn't let up until the end. I can't imagine how anyone could read this book and not laugh all the way through it!

Camp Algonkian Island is every campers dream. Or so the counselors and the camp director, Mr. Warden, believe. None of them are prepared for Rudy Miller. Rudy doesn't want to be at camp; he's determined to go home and he'll do anything he has to do in order to escape 'Alcatraz' (his preferred nickname for the island) and the clones (what he calls the counselors). His counselor in Cabin 13, Chip, isn't quite sure what to do with the Rudy when he refuses to participate in all camp activites by saying he 'doesn't do them'. Chip's problems have only begun when Mike Webster joins Rudy as another camper who would prefer to be elsewhere and finds himself swept up into Rudy's somewhat dramatic, and hilarious, attempts at escape.

Between repeated escape attempts, seemingly endless punishment duty, and an ongoing feud with cabinmate Harold Green, the counselors manage to force Rudy into participation and find that not only can he DO all the things he refused to participate in, Rudy has the abilities of a natural born overachiever! He wins at every sport, game and contest that he competes in -- but he still wants to go home.

Hilarity ensues as Rudy and Mike build dams, take boats, and escape from events off the island in their attempts to get away from camp while various counselors try to bribe Rudy into playing on camp teams (thus assuring they'd win); meanwhile, Rudy is slowly driving Chip toward a nervous breakdown.

Rudy's blase attitude and dead pan humor are dead on and this book is a masterpiece. No matter your age this book will be truly enjoyable.

I first picked up "I want to go home!" when I was around 10. I loved it the first time just as I've loved it all the other 29 odd times I've read it. I wish I could say I was exaggerating but I'm not. Once I even picked up the book again and read it twice in the same afternoon! Rudy Miller is someone who could never really exist. Like Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. The power that these characters generate is so strong that you get to like them a lot. Or you wish they actually existed. The story of 'I want to go home' is about a boy who's good at everything without trying. In his inscription Gordon Korman says "There's fun, and then there's fun. This is dedicated to those who know the difference." The fun of the chase, the game. Rudy has to find trouble to make things fun because everything else comes so easily to him. The situations that he creates are what seperate this book from any other comic childrens book ever written. I don't care if you're 100 or 15, like myself, if you like humour you'll like this book!

My brother encouraged me to check out Gordon Korman books when we were in elementary school. I have never laughed so hard( to this day!) over 'I want to go home". Korman's books are geared to the 10 to 14 crowd, but they are still appealing to adults. Even my grandma who roared over this book. If you like summer camp books, check this one out. I think many camp councelors as well as teachers who deal with trying teens,would benefit from this book.

This is one of the stories I remember with stark clarity from my childhood. I loved it and still do. It's one of the reasons I decided to become a writer. I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age. There's more to this story than what's on the surface. I think it speaks strongly about being the person you want to be, despite what everyone else thinks. Rudy Miller is as individual as a character gets. The mere thought of him still cracks me up. If you don't buy it, find it and just read it. You'll see what I mean.

I still vividly remember laughing my head off when i read and re-read this book in my early teens. I have never to this day laughed out loud so much when reading a book. Gordon Korman was something of a child prodigy himself way back then being an extraordinarily young and successful writer, he was well in tune with teenage humour. I would recommend this to anyone but especially to teenage kids and for parents with teenage kids - point this one their way. The message is - it is ok to be an individual and want to be different, but dont forget to have fun too!

My cousin first introduced me to this book about 10 years ago, and I must say, I've been coming to her for good-reading suggestions ever since. When my brother was about nine, nobody could get him to come within ten feet of a book if it wasn't necessary for school. I finally came up with the idea of reading "I Want to Go Home!" to him. (I didn't dream of making him read it on his own.) Well, every night for the next couple of weeks, the sound of ringing laughter could be heard coming from his bedroom at night. After we were about halfway through, I was in for a surprise -- he had begun reading the book on his own! He's been almost an avid reader ever since, and he still loves to re-read this family classic. (P.S. This technique -- and this book -- worked for my youngest brother, as well.) And all three of us liked camp.

I can't believe that so many of Gordon Korman's books are out of print! Has the world lost its mind??? We need Gordon Korman! To keep us happy...to keep us laughing...to keep us alive!

I just read "I Want to Go Home" again yesterday afternoon and I have to say I was transported back to the days of my youth...but not in the way you might expect. You see, I never went to camp. I never had to deal with the cheery counsellors, annoying campers, lousy food, and the incessant demands to "have fun". However, re-reading this book DID take me back to the days when I read it the first time (mid-80s as I recall) and I had a blast.

I remember this as being one of my favourite books when I was a kid. I had forgotten how funny this book really is. Rudy Miller's dry sense of humour is, for me, what gives this book it's charm. Some of the things he comes out with are just laugh out loud funny. And the whole story with the beaver - I had completely forgotten about that.

I noticed that a few updates have been made over the last 20 years (in my day, it was just a regular portable tape player that Rudy used to shut himself off initially from his fellow campers, not a CD player) effectively, yet subtly refreshing this great story for a new generation. For those "older" folks like me, I highly recommend picking this one up for those of you who are nostalgic for life at camp, and for those of you who just want a good chuckle.

I first came across this book in the 6th grade, when my teacher read it to our class.. It kept our attention, it moved along swiftly and was the funniest book ever. I remembered it years later and when i had the chance to come across it in used book stores I bought it, to this day (I'm almost 27 right now!) I still find it one of the best books i've ever gotten to read. I just finished reading it again for the zillionth time and i don't mind admitting i loved it even more. I realize people think it's silly for an adult to read such a book but i have to tell you that the story of Rudy Miller and Mike Webster (and who could forget Harold Greene?) at camp tickles my funny bone even now.

If you get the chance, don't let this one pass you by.

I keep a tally--I have read this book 47 times from back to front. It is the funniest tale I have ever read, and I am constantly lending it to my grown friends so that they can share in the cynicism that is Rudy Miller. It is my humor bible. My book is starting to fall apart, though. Definitely worth reading!