Dodger for President

August 1, 2009
Gr 3-6-This sequel to "Dodger and Me" (Feiwel and Friends, 2008) continues the adventures of Willie Ryan and his invisible friend, Dodger, a blue chimp with magical powers. While attending school disguised as Willie (with the help of a magic potion), Dodger agrees to run for fifth-grade class president with Willie's friend Lizzie as running mate. Willie thinks the election is a lost cause, since their opponents are "popular kid" James and "scary tough kid" Craig, but his friends encourage him to stick with it. His little sister Amy (whose suspicious nature is sometimes annoying and sometimes surprisingly helpful) rounds out the cast. Told in the first-person colloquial, leavened with ironic silliness and mild gross-out humor, the narrative will be familiar to readers of James Proimos and Jeff Kinney. There's also a bit of depth, especially when the less sympathetic characters show more complexity than most grade-school villains. But some of the humor is a bit forced and kids who have not read the earlier book will definitely be in the dark about Dodger and his magic. Purchase where the first title has a following."Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2009
Grades 4-6 Picking up where Dodger and Me (2008) left off, Sonnenblick continues the story of friends Willie and Lizzie and the magical blue chimp, Dodger, that only they can see. The formula ismuch the samedorky kid helped out by invisible allybut here its applied to a school election that has Willie and Lizzie facing off against a superpopular jock and his tough-guy sidekick. And again, Dodger spends most of the book bouncing off the walls, espousing zany schemes that mostly serve to hamstring the kids campaign. While the broad humor generally reaches for lower-hanging fruit, the outlandish tone should please Dodgers fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)