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From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7–A surrealistic and nutty mystery set in an average community in Suburbia, USA. Dwayne Ruggles is a short, round seventh-grader who discovers that by rubbing an old-fashioned phonograph needle attached to a Victrola horn (dont ask) in the grooves of his jeans, he can hear a secret message. Then he rubs it in the ripples of potato chips and hears another message. It sounds as though someone is begging for help–but who could it be? And where are they? When his friend Kevin joins him, they soon learn that both the jeans and chips came from the nearby factories owned by Howard Thigpen, a megalomaniacal multimillionaire. Dwayne, Kevin, and fellow student Emily Holmes decide that Thigpen must be holding hostages in his heavily secured factory complex, and that its up to them to rescue the captives. Kids will laugh their way through the ridiculous situations the three find themselves in. With its crazy deadpan humor, the novel is a hoot, and one of the best candidates for booktalking to come along in a long while.–Walter Minkel, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 4-7. Brockmeier constructs a frothy, fanciful, and entertaining blend of science fiction and mystery, in which nerdy seventh-grader Dwayne Ruggles discovers that the ridges in his blue jeans (and in a certain brand of potato chips), if scratched with a needle, emit a message: a voice pleading for help. It turns out that wealthy entrepreneur Howard Thigpen, who pretty much owns the town and all its businesses, is torturing factory workers, who have embedded these messages in the products in hopes that, like a message in a bottle, someone will find them, decode them and help. Sure it's a silly premise, but it also makes for a compulsively readable story with charmingly eccentric characters. Brockmeier delights in wordplay, and clever names abound (the Chinese restaurant is called Dim Sum and Then Some). Dwayne and his friends Kevin and Emily form an unlikely but effective crime-fighting trio, who may bring to mind Ron, Hermione, and Harry in the Harry Potter series. Debbie Carton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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First Sentence:
My favorite teacher at Howard Thigpen Junior High School is Mr. Fred. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
skritch skritch skritch, rhinestone jacket, blue jeans factory, bagel restaurant, potato chip factory, cream factory, glass bell Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Kevin Applebab, Howard Thigpen, Emily Holmes, Ned Hajimura, Spark Transplantation Machine, North Mellwood, Thigpen Corporation, Dwayne Ruggles, Groove Machine, Coach Channering, Sherlock Holmes, The Uncanny X-Men, Thigpen Brand Potato Chips, Factory Row, Mellwood Reservoir, Thigpen Brand Pigpen, Young Ruggles, Cinnamon Holmes, Kitty Pryde, Robot Variety Hour, The Famous, Thigpen Factories New!
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