Miracle Wimp

August 20, 2007
A Captain Underpants
for the older bunch, Kraft’s (Lenny and Mel
) comedic riff on male adolescence is as nerdy and hormonally driven as they come. Written like an illustrated journal of sorts with titles for each page-length entry and in often fragmented sentences, the book reads like a haphazard, stream-of-consciousness rant—one 10th-grader’s perspective on high school in a small Massachusetts town. “My last name is Mayo, and I can’t help but wonder if it were something different, would the Donkeys just ignore me? Maybe. But instead I’m Miracle Wimp,” the narrator reports. He comments on everything from the varieties of wedgiesand the tortures of gym class to the difference between the cool kids and the dorks, to the nerves and eventual irritation that accompany his first date, to going to (and actually having fun at) the prom. Kraft rarely dips below the surface on any of these issues, preferring instead to try to see the humor (or the pathos) in it all. While girls may not get into the narrator’s sensibility, boys who enjoy series of short takes—especially those infused with slapstick and sarcasm—will find this virtually plotless book a quick and entertaining read. Illustrations not seen by PW
. Ages 12-up.

October 1, 2007
Gr 8 Up-Tom Mayo hopes his sophomore year as a middling geek will improve with the help of two buddies, coffee, a car, and, perhaps, a girlfriend. In brief vignettes and accompanying drawings, Tom, called Miracle Wimp because of his last name, shares bits and pieces of high school life, describing Donkeys (beefy bullies), Heads (smoking druggies), and Wood Shop with weird Mr. Boort. Kraft brings deadpan commentaries to life through Tom's funny, doodled artwork. While the drawings consistently deliver comical (and sometimes poignant) punch lines, connecting text and art creates a lag and readers experience laughter almost as an afterthought. Tom's first-person account also undermines potentially comedic episodes as he tediously describes how other people find him funny. Readers find flashes of humor primarily in his drawings, not in his words. Tom's narration does effectively capture what it's like to just miss the mark of cool, an experience shared by most high school students. Like a comic strip, the teen's riffs and sketches work best when read individually, with time to digest and chuckle over clever moments. Readers who have trouble concentrating, an artistic hand, or a wry sense of humor will enjoy jumping in and out of Tom Mayo's amusing anecdotes."Shelley Huntington, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2007
Tom Mayo chronicles a high-school year in which he makes and abandons friends, endures wood-shop class, copes with the bullying Donkeys, and acquires a drivers license and a girlfriend. In short appropriately titled first-person entries, he perfectly captures the insecurity and self-consciousness of his age. Often humorous, these vignettes also show Toms social growth. At first he is only vaguely aware that teasing Larry, a special-ed student, is wrong. But Tom is a decent kid at heart, and his response to Larrys accidental death is to move away from the friends who made fun of the boy. Later Tom comes to recognize that picking on someone even lower in the social pecking order makes him no different from the Donkeys he hates. Toms observations of the high-school worlds factions and the complex social dance called going out together ring true. Easy, engaging reading with a serious side. Illustrated with the authors sketches.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)