I Want to Go Home! [Paperback]

Gordon Korman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Scholastic (February 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590337653
• ISBN-13: 978-0590337656
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,750,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among Korman's Best, March 10, 2003

By 

J. M. Jones (Austin, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Want to Go Home! (Paperback)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You can be 10 or 20, this book is hilarious either way!, December 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: I Want to Go Home! (Paperback)

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!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious, March 4, 2005

By 

puff (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Want to Go Home! (Hardcover)

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.