Wild Cards

December 15, 2016
The kids in Matt's class love to play with Monster Zap cards during recess, but now their principal has banned them, leaving the child scrambling to find a solution for recess despair. Monster Zap cards seem to be a lot like Yu-Gi-Oh!: tradable cards that children buy, have battles with, and sometimes lose. Since the recess area is a trashy concrete wasteland surrounded by mud, the cards offer one of the only available diversions for the white grade schooler and his multiracial friends. Mr. Leon, the principal, isn't unsympathetic; he just sees that the cards cause conflicts of their own. Matt, inspired by his innovative and creative black teacher, comes up with a plan to bring back the cards--but in a constructive way that even leads to both a cleanup of the playground and a return of a limited amount of other recess activities. All of this problem-solving is presented in a story suitable for readers just transitioning to chapter books, so Whamond has supplied plenty of appealing, cartoonlike, black-and-white illustrations to accompany the simple, large-print text. The tale is action-driven with little room for character development, but the reasonably believable kid-initiated resolution is satisfying enough to render that immaterial. A good choice for emergent readers who might like to promote improvements to their schools. (Fiction. 6-9)

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February 1, 2017

Gr 1-4-The boys at Matt's school are crazy for Monster Zap, a popular television show and card game. Matt and his friend Tyler get in a fight over a prized Gross Eyeball card. The principal soon bans the cards from school, declaring that they are a bad influence. Matt and his friends are distraught and try to come up with a plan to still play the game at school. Matt tries drawing the cards, but things get out of hand when other students create a card that insults the principal. He realizes that he needs to work together with the school principal to find a solution that not only helps his friends but also benefits the school at large. This is a story about problem-solving and creating ways to make one's environment a better place. It reads like a simpler version of Tom Angleberger's The Strange Case Of Origami Yoda. The writing is aimed at emerging or struggling readers, and the content is high-interest.

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