Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Publication Date: September 20th, 2011
A body on the tracks.
A teenage terrorist.
A mysterious wish-granting machine.
The world’s worst private detective.
The second volume in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading is chock-full of mystery, intrigue, and nefarious activity. Featuring some of the best writers around, and compiled by certified guy Jon Scieszka, Guys Read: Thriller is a pulse-pounding collection of brand-new short stories, each one guaranteed to keep you riveted until the final page.
(Courtesy of Goodreads)
I really enjoyed the first two Guys Read books, Guys Write for Guys Read and Guys Read: Funny Business. I admire Jon Scieszka for his dedication to the Guys Read initiative; I think it's really important to find ways to get boys reading as much as girls do, and the only way to do this is to find ways to make more boys LIKE to read. This series of books are awesome for introducing boys to some of the many awesome MG and YA authors that write novels that boys like; they are full of short stories by popular authors like James Patterson, Anthony Horowitz, M.T. Anderson, Tony DiTerlizzi, Jeff Kinney, David Lubar, Patrick Carman, Adam Rex, and Margaret Peterson Haddix. All of this said, I wasn't terribly impressed with this latest installment. There were a couple of stories I really liked, but most fell flat for me. Granted, I'm not the audience this book was intended for, but I felt a little let down. These stories weren't really scary, and when I think "thriller", that's what I expect...
As you would expect, M.T. Anderson (The Old, Dead Nuisance) and Patrick Carman (Ghost Vision Glasses) wrote the two best stories for this genre. Walter Dean Myers wrote the fabulous Pirates (which was probably the best written story in the collection), but it was not at all what I would call a "thriller". I guess I didn't DISLIKE any of the stories, but these are the only three real standouts for me.
Do I think MG boys should give this book a shot? Absolutely! It is still a GREAT choice for a reluctant reader, I just had very high expectations after reading the other two Guys Read books. If you want to know more about the Guys Read initiative, click HERE.
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½
Grade Level Recommendation: This book is a Middle Grade book and is appropriate for most children with the ability to read it. That said, my daughter COULD have read this at age four, but a she would have been scared by it, and I would NOT have wanted her to read Pirates yet (even if the scariness weren't a factor with the other stories), so I am going to to say that content-wise this is for ages 8 and up (3rd grade+).
Grade Level Recommendation: This book is a Middle Grade book and is appropriate for most children with the ability to read it. That said, my daughter COULD have read this at age four, but a she would have been scared by it, and I would NOT have wanted her to read Pirates yet (even if the scariness weren't a factor with the other stories), so I am going to to say that content-wise this is for ages 8 and up (3rd grade+).
**Don't forget to enter my international GIVEAWAY for your chance to win a SIGNED hardcover copy of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins! Click HERE to enter!**
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