This book just didn't catch me. It tried really hard to be different and funny but I was mostly uninterested. ( )

Teen fiction; comedy. The executive producer of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart has written a lightning-quick read full of silly gags that should delight people of all ages (unless, of course, you've outgrown that sort of thing). A good recommend for reluctant readers (short paragraphs and short chapters). ( )

This wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as I hoped it would be, but I did laugh at some points. And I felt it ended rather abruptly without resolving some of the subplots it had set up. So I found it just kinda so-so, but I'd definitely read the author's next one. ( )

This was a family listen-aloud on our trip and was ok for my 8th grader but a stretch for my 6th grader despite the middle-school setting. Language and innuendo made for a few awkward moments, but the story was entertaining. Oliver Watson has a public persona as a chubby, baby-ish, nerdy idiot, but he is actually a brilliant mastermind of school domination. His inventions and "bat cave" technology rival Artemis Fowl and James Bond, but he is determined to use his power for evil, manipulating school cliques, teachers, and in this story, the 8th grade election which he is determined to win to impress his father who has fallen for his simpleton persona. Definitely a stretch in terms of believability -- Ollie has various government and industry big wigs at his beck and call, as well as classified weapons and defense. Some of this hyperbole is what makes it funny as well as some of the characterization of his classmates which tends to transcend stereotypes. But the reading narrator is so vitriolic and the Oliver's contempt of his parents is so cutting that (for me) it undermines some of the humor in the story. ( )

I listened to the audio book version of this, and I gotta say that the narrator, Marc Thompson, did an excellent job. He used an arsenal of voices and had excellent comedic timing and inflection. I much enjoyed the way the story was told. I even laughed out loud at a few parts.

The book's political agenda, on the other hand, irked me. I knew what I was getting into from the beginning (this being written by Josh Lieb and all) but, still, I was hoping for more subtlety. That joke was on me. ( )