Melonhead

Starred review from February 23, 2009
Kelly, author of Lucy Rose: Here's the Thing About Me
and its sequels, launches an appealing, boy-centric series starring Lucy Rose's friend, Adam Melon (dubbed Melonhead). The hyperkinetic nine-year-old's knack for finding trouble surfaces immediately, when his foot gets stuck in a tree and he must be rescued by firefighters (“My mom said my shoe is ruined. I told her, 'Not to me.' I nailed it to the wall over my bed so I will always have the memory”). Though Melonhead's subsequent conundrums are (slightly) less dramatic, they are no less engaging or energetic. Adam's goofy sense of humor and his comic interactions with his parents, teachers and best friend Sam (the two are amateur inventors) are just right for the target audience. “I love the feeling of having a pet in the house,” he says of the snake he's hiding from his parents. “Two pets, actually, even though as soon as Cobra has his next lunch, I'll be back to one.” The book has an excellent shot at winning over reluctant readers. Final art not seen by PW
. Ages 9–12.

March 1, 2009
Gr 2-5-Adam Melon, Melonhead to his friends, brings his own brand of logic to his endeavors. The 10-year-old concocts grand plans that never quite come off as intended. His climb up a tree requires the Jaws of Life to free him, a first for the Washington, DC, fire department. His essay on head lice wins him the Homework of the Week award and his mother's consternation. When Adam and his friend Sam catch a snake, Sam's baby sister carts it around at night and drops it in her parents' bed. Adam struggles with the right idea for his science project; his experiments with plaster of Paris (never pour it down a drain), diapers, and mosquitoes produce typical Melonhead disasters. The final invention will entertain and educate readers. This is the first book in the series, a spin-off of the author's "Lucy Rose" books (Random). It is laugh-out-loud funny, rivaling Stink and Fudge in its troublemaker quotient. Adam never quite understands consequences until it is too late, but young readers will see potential trouble ahead while appreciating his ingenuity. The capital setting and a unique cast of secondary characters round out this strong chapter-book offering.Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2009
Grades 3-5 Adam Melon (Melonhead) from Kellys Lucy Rose books begins his spin-off series, and if Lucy Rose is an older Junie B. Jones, then Adam is a nine-year-old Stink, from the eponymous series by Megan McDonald. Adam is at that growing-up stage where possible consequences take a backseat to enthusiasm, resulting in a lot of learning, a lot of parental bafflement, and a lot of laughs. Other than getting his leg stuck in a tree, cutting open a saturated diaper, and scouring the kitchen for lost reptiles, Melonhead enters the school reinvention fair and trades creative rhyming phrases with his best friend, such as Dont be silly, Willie and Youre smart, Fart. The everyday adventures, set in Washington, D.C., and relative lack of conflict are precisely what provide the appeal here, and readers will enjoy meeting an average kid.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)