The Blunder Years

February 1, 2015
Martin Moone, a dimwitted 11-year-old Irish boy with three difficult older sisters, decides to take on an imaginary friend, or IF.As Martin, a sad-sack lad who is bully bait for the mean Bonner brothers, learns, procuring an imaginary friend is not for the faint of heart. His first IF is a failure, an annoyingly jokey, balloon-animal-making fellow named Loopy Lou, who turns out to be needy and exceptionally hard to fire. In this effort, Martin is assisted by a lazy, bearded, customer-service representative for the Corporate League of Imaginary Friends Federation, who later succeeds to the position of imaginary friend. The other story thread concerns Martin's efforts to combat the Bonner brothers by enlisting an older tough, who agrees to help in exchange for a feel of Martin's sister's boobs, which turns out to be challenging for our idiot hero to arrange. Based on an original Hulu series starring author O'Dowd, the book has an amusing tone; although it sometimes strains for the joke, it is intermittently funny-even very funny in spots. But despite its clever premise, enhanced by Giampaglia's witty illustrations, it could use a good sharp clipping, as it's repetitious and bloated with unnecessary exposition and explanation. This story should keep its target audience of pre-pubescent boys giggling but is unlikely to find fans outside of this demographic. (Fiction. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2015
Grades 4-7 Summer is an awfully dull season for the schoolboy with no imagination. Eleven-year-old Martin Moone, younger brother of three terrifying sisters, would do just about anything for some male companionship. Unfortunately, his best (and only) friend is tied up for the summer, so he suggests Martin get himself an imaginary friend. For those lacking the imagination to imagine their own, there's a catalog: Martin lands himself first with the disastrous Loopy Lou and then the somewhat dishonestly obtained Sean Murphy. But now his summer takes a turn for the better as he and Sean face down sisters and bullies alike, all while dodging the increasingly desperate Loopy Lou. Based on the Irish sitcom (also written by and starring O'Dowd), this is peppered with Irish colloquialisms, though tongue-in-cheek footnotes explain these to American readers. The wacky doodles and preteen humor (think fart jokes) makes this an entertaining read for the middle-grade set.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)