Kick Me

July 1, 2002
These interlocking essays—on everything from a sadistic gym teacher and geeky after-class pastimes to obsessive romantic tendencies and a prom that wasn't the best night of the author's life—are terrifically entertaining, although undoubtedly imaginatively amped up for maximum readability. Feig is the creator of the late-'90s sitcom Freaks and Geeks, a sort of Wonder Years
for the Dungeons and Dragons set. Much of the show was based on Feig's own childhood, and this memoir is, in a way, the show's literary equivalent. After Mr. Wendell, Feig's seventh-grade gym teacher, orders a bunch of big, mean classmates to pile on top of Feig and pummel him as he stumbles out of the locker-room showers, the author recalls, "They all started to get off me one at a time, laughing and congratulating each other on a job well done.... All I could do was stand there and think about the fact that this was merely the first day of gym class. Nine more months of pre-teen locker room torture awaited me." But Feig gets the last laugh. Blessed with the sensitivity that landed him in such trouble when young, he lightly slices and dices the social cunning of all the bullies unfortunate enough to enter his orbit. True to form, Feig's mini-hit was canceled after one season, leading to a futile mass uprising, including a full-page ad in Variety, from his fans, who were disenchanted by yet another of life's downers. It is that very audience who will adore this originally written, imaginatively comic missive.

September 1, 2002
In 1999, Feig created a critically acclaimed comedy-drama series for NBC called Freaks and Geeks. In it, he captured the experience of adolescence as lived by typical freaks and geeks in a Michigan high school, circa 1980. Unfortunately, the show was canceled after one season. With this collection of very funny essays, Feig once again captures the experience of teenagehood with all its insecurities, embarrassments, angst, and obsessions. The reader can't help but relate to at least a couple of his stories about growing up, throwing up, or simply giving up. Feig is adept at bringing his geeky past to life in stories about the inescapable hell of gym-class dodgeball, inevitable betrayals by members of the opposite sex, and a wacky episode about announcing his first high school football game. Kick Me took this reviewer on a nostalgia trip through his own adolescence. It is certain to release a rush of memories in all who have finally come to grips with the awkwardness of having grown up. Primarily for the humor section of public libraries, this work might also provide some insight for psychologists specializing in adolescence.-Joe Accardi, William Rainey Harper Coll. Lib., Palatine, IL

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2003
Adult/High School-Readers will find plenty to relate to in these true stories of teacher's pets, proms, and riding the school bus. The book succeeds because of the universality of the situations. Feig is not the first person to hate gym class, nor will he be the last, but he recounts his various experiences so vividly that a situation as common as snooping for presents in a parent's closet takes on an extra level of paranoia and humor. Most of the reminiscences are decidedly tame. The author panics when his school-dance date drinks a beer and panics again when he thinks that he might have to kiss her after the beer makes her sick-especially since he has never kissed a girl at all. Some of the stories read like a lighter David Sedaris-there is even one about Feig's stint as an elf, albeit in the first-grade Christmas pageant, rather than the Macy's of Sedaris's Holidays on Ice (Little, Brown, 1997). In fact, despite the subtitle, more than half the book takes place in elementary and middle school. Teens will find lots to laugh at and relate to in these tales of insecure geekdom, even though the events took place more than 20 years ago, in the time of Olivia Newton-John records and polyester pants.-Jamie Watson, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore

September 15, 2002
Feig is best known as the creator of the hilarious and lamentably short-lived television show " Freaks and Geeks," which was set in the 1980s and chronicled the lives of high-school outsiders. Both those who miss the show and those who've never heard of it will enjoy Feig's comical collection of essays about his own youth. From the dreaded nicknames he endured to his many misadventures with the opposite sex, Feig lays it all out. In several essays, Feig relates the woes of gym class. He dreads having to change clothes in front of the other boys in his gym class, and matters are only made worse when they discover a butterfly his mother drew on his underwear. A secret cross-dressing experiment ends in disaster when Feig's neighbors come to his house with news that his mother has been in a minor car accident. Feig has a few successes as well--he wins a talent show and even gets the girl sometimes. Whether he's triumphant or humiliated, Feig is a droll storyteller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)