Thank you to Random House
for sending me a copy of this book to review
and for providing a copy of the book
for me to giveaway! (Details below!)
Title: Beach Party Surf Monkey
Author: Chris Grabenstein
Illustrator: Brooke Allen
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: May 1st, 2017
Genre/Format: Realistic Fiction/Novel
GoodReads Summary: There's always something wacky happening when you live in a motel, and P.T. (named after P. T. Barnum, of course) has grown up at the world's wackiest! When word gets out that the hottest teen idols in Hollywood (plus current YouTube sensation Kevin the Monkey!) will be filming their next movie--Beach Party Surf Monkey--right in St. Pete's Beach, Florida, P.T. and his friend Gloria know that the Wonderland would be the perfect location. Now they just have to convince the producers!
But when things start to go wrong (crazed fans? missing stars?), it will take all of Gloria's business genius and P.T.'s wild stories to save the movie before both it and the Wonderland are all washed up!
What I Think: I enjoyed both books in the Welcome to Wonderland series and am excited to share them with my kids! P.T. is such a character but he's lovable at the same time. He tells lots of stories gets into all sorts of sticky situations but his heart is in the right place.
As a mentor text, I would look at how Chris is able to build P.T.'s character through letting us into his head and dialogue. There is a lot of dialogue in this book. I picked a snatch of text when we get to be inside P.T.'s head and understand some of his thinking. This is an example of how we can grow to like him because we see his thought process. The best part is that he uses some great imagery in this snatch of text without making it boring. It's a great example of a simile done well! So fun!
As a mentor text, I would look at how Chris is able to build P.T.'s character through letting us into his head and dialogue. There is a lot of dialogue in this book. I picked a snatch of text when we get to be inside P.T.'s head and understand some of his thinking. This is an example of how we can grow to like him because we see his thought process. The best part is that he uses some great imagery in this snatch of text without making it boring. It's a great example of a simile done well! So fun!
Snatch of Text:
"As I grabbed the door, I realized that if I took Aidan Tyler into the lobby of the Wonderland, he'd be like a prize blowfish in an aquarium. His fans would just press up against the glass to gawk at him. Some girl would probably make smoochy faces at him, too. And that would mean I'd have to spend my weekend cleaning greasy lipstick smears off our floor-to-ceiling windows.
'Change of plans,' I told him." (p. 47)
"As I grabbed the door, I realized that if I took Aidan Tyler into the lobby of the Wonderland, he'd be like a prize blowfish in an aquarium. His fans would just press up against the glass to gawk at him. Some girl would probably make smoochy faces at him, too. And that would mean I'd have to spend my weekend cleaning greasy lipstick smears off our floor-to-ceiling windows.
'Change of plans,' I told him." (p. 47)
Writing Prompt: Write about what you think about when it comes to fame. Do you like the idea of being famous? Would you want to be famous? Or do you have other thoughts about being famous? Make connections with P.T.'s experience with fame and your own.
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