By the Grace of Todd

December 2, 2013
While attempting to clean up the staggering mess that is his room, sixth-grader Todd Butroche discovers a colony of Borrower-like mini-humans living on his sock. (“You’ve spawned life through sheer grossness!” cheers his scientifically minded friend Lucy.) Meanwhile, school bully Max Loving has taken Todd under his wing; when Max learns of the “Toddlians” (as Lucy dubs them), he decides to train like circus fleas for a science project. Todd wants to save the Toddlians, and they have faith that “the Great Todd” will rescue them, as seen in the occasional chapters they narrate. Will Todd give up being cool to stand up to Max? The answer isn’t a surprise, but readers won’t care—this story is all about the ride, in all of its gross and grimy glory. Galveston (a pseudonym) delights in the icky habits of the Toddlians (“dead skin cell and toe jam sandwiches” are a delicacy), yet her portrayal of the brutalities of middle school feels as real as the things Todd learns about friends, popularity, and being true to oneself. Ages 8–12. Agent: Chris Snowdon, Working Partners.

December 1, 2013
Can a kid who killed his hermit crab through neglect save a brand new civilization? Sixth-grader Todd Galveston Butroche just wants to survive the new year at Wakefield Middle School. He and his best friend, Duddy, have always been bullied; this year's got to be different. Todd and his home-schooled neighbor, Lucy, discover an entire civilization of tiny humanoids living on a sweaty gym sock under Todd's bed in his disgustingly unclean room. The Toddlians see Todd as a god; Todd sees them as his ticket to coolness after he's paired with uber-bully Max for the science fair. Max wants to train the Toddlians to do dangerous tricks. Will Todd give up his friends and destroy a civilization just to be cool? No need to guess why Galveston decided to use a pseudonym for this unfortunate waste of an entertainingly gross premise. The frame story, related by Toddlian Lewis, doesn't work particularly well with Todd's first-person narration. The tiny Toddlians are microscopic when Todd first discovers them, but fairly quickly he's able to see them with his naked eye, and they can juggle marbles and ride chameleons. Dated and unfunny jokes about such figures as Nixon and John Wayne will be totally lost on the target audience, and there's a serious problem with relative time in the narrative. This entry in the little-people subgenre should be avoided like a moldy tube sock. The "to be continued" on the final page reads like a threat. (Fantasy. 8-11)

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June 1, 2014

Gr 4-7-The premise of this middle school fantasy is a great hook for the right kind of reader: Twelve-year-old Todd is so messy that his "gagadocious" dirty laundry pile spawns sentient life: he discovers an entire civilization of about 50 ant-sized people living on his sweat sock. The "Toddlians" idolize the boy and count on him for protection, but Todd lets them down by bringing a popular but malicious kid in on the secret. Plenty of action follows as the mean-spirited Max abuses the amazing creatures and Todd, with help from a neighbor girl, finally figures out how to save them. The Toddlians are an amusing bunch, especially in the handful of chapters they narrate. They learn at an amazingly fast rate, absorbing knowledge from movies and television, resulting in some funny moments. Todd, on the other hand, is a hard kid to like for much of the book. He goes along with Max's schemes without much thought or regret and for the most part doesn't show all that much amazement or curiosity about the Toddlians's existence. Switches in perspective and frequent scenes of action keep the story moving, but twists involving a car break-in and a money-making scheme at a local fair feel contrived. The idea of people created spontaneously from grossness results in some fun but not enough to make up for the unappealing protagonist and a less than stellar plotline.-Steven Engelfried, Wilsonville Public Library, OR

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2014
Grades 4-7 We've all known messy people (heck, we may even be messy people), but imagine a boy so messy that a new civilization has spawned in his dirty gym socks. Todd is used to being either ignored or tormented at school. When one of the bullies, Max, is assigned to partner with Todd for a science project and he becomes privy to the new civilization, Max decides to take over, stealing some of the people and damaging them for the sake of the project. With potential popularity dangled in front of him, Todd lets it happen. Now the question becomes, will Todd realize what's important in time to save the tiny peopleToddilianswho think of him as a god? There's humor here and lessons to be learned, but Todd starts off as an unsympathetic character, and it takes an awfully long time for him to come to his senses. Fortunately, the hilarious premise and the excellent cast of supporting characters, including a neighbor and a pal (who make a much better impression than Todd) keep this on track.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)