{"id":190,"date":"2008-09-25T20:40:50","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T00:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/25\/review-of-alvin-ho-allergic-to-girls-school-and-other-scary-things-by-lenore-look\/"},"modified":"2008-10-13T12:44:29","modified_gmt":"2008-10-13T16:44:29","slug":"review-of-alvin-ho-allergic-to-girls-school-and-other-scary-things-by-lenore-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=190","title":{"rendered":"Review of Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things, by Lenore Look"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"alvin_ho.jpg\"\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Alvin Ho<\/em><\/p>\n

Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things<\/em><\/p>\n

by Lenore Look<\/p>\n

pictures by LeUyen Pham<\/p>\n

Schwartz & Wade Books, New York, 2008.\u00a0 172 pages.<\/p>\n

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things, <\/em>reminded me of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, <\/em>only for younger kids.\u00a0 It has similar cartoon drawings generously illustrating the story, and a similar attitude toward school.<\/p>\n

Alvin Ho is starting the second grade.\u00a0 He does not like school.\u00a0 He says, “If there were no school, my troubles would blast away, just like that.\u00a0 I would dig holes all day.\u00a0 I would play catch with my gunggung.\u00a0 I would watch cooking shows.\u00a0 I would keep an eye on things.\u00a0 It would be fantastic!”<\/p>\n

Alvin tells us that before he went to school, he was a superhero.\u00a0 “I was Firecracker Man!\u00a0 I ran around our house, full speed ahead, screaming at the top of my lungs while beating on a garbage can lid.\u00a0 I was as noisy as a firecracker on Chinese New Year! . . .<\/p>\n

“But now I am Firecracker Man only on weekends and holidays.\u00a0 There is just no time for it.<\/p>\n

“Being a superhero is hard work.\u00a0 You have to save the world.\u00a0 But going to school is even harder.\u00a0 You have to save yourself.\u00a0 Most days I can hardly even make it to the school bus.\u00a0 And when I arrive at school, I can’t think.\u00a0 I can’t read.\u00a0 I can’t smile.\u00a0 I can’t sing.\u00a0 I can’t scream.<\/p>\n

“I can’t even talk.”<\/p>\n

It turns out that Alvin has never said one word at school.\u00a0 He can talk anywhere else, even on the school bus.\u00a0 But at school, his voice simply doesn’t work.<\/p>\n

Not talking at school makes it hard to make friends.\u00a0 It makes it hard to avoid annoying girls who want to be your desk buddy.\u00a0 It makes it hard to join in a game of Minutemen and Redcoats.\u00a0 It makes it hard to explain to a substitute teacher why you aren’t responding to her questions.<\/p>\n

This book is a lot of fun, with a nice set of school-related scrapes, and Alvin learning to confront his fears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I did think the chicken pox adventure, where the whole class gets chicken pox after paying to visit the first kid who caught it, was funny, but sadly out of date.\u00a0 My 14-year-old son was required to get a chicken pox vaccination before he went to school, and I think that’s pretty standard now.\u00a0 So today’s children, poor things, will never know the joys of two weeks off of school along with the fun of showing off ones spots.<\/p>\n

There are some great quirky characters.\u00a0 Alvin’s Dad likes to use Shakespearean imprecations when he’s angry.\u00a0 The annoying girl Flea wears an eyepatch.\u00a0 Alvin’s sister loves to dig holes.\u00a0 And Alvin himself is a big collection of entertaining quirks.<\/p>\n

Alvin Ho <\/em>is longer than a beginning chapter book, but makes fun, non-threatening reading with lots of pictures\u00a0for a\u00a0kid ready to laugh at the trials and tribulations of facing scary things like school and bullies and girls.<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on the main site at:<\/p>\n

www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/alvin_ho.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Alvin Ho Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look pictures by LeUyen Pham Schwartz & Wade Books, New York, 2008.\u00a0 172 pages. Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things, reminded me of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, only for younger kids.\u00a0 It has similar cartoon drawings generously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,21,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-contemporary","category-humorous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}