Desmond Pucket Makes Monster Magic
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"Tatulli's entry into the comics/fiction--hybrid market is one of the best…The target audience will snap this up and beg for more."
---Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This is full of ghoulish fun, and fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid probably won't want to miss it."
---School Library Journal
"Desmond Pucket neatly fills a gap for our readers---it's a step more sophisticated than Diary of a Wimpy Kid but appeals to that reader. It's also so great to have a Halloween/monster/scary stuff series to offer boys that is not Goosebumps."
---Rebecca Waesch, Children's Product Manager, Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Meet Desmond Pucket---professor of frightology and master of monsters.
Someday Desmond will be famous for his special effects wizardry, but for now he's just trying to make it through sixth grade at Cloverfield Memorial Junior High, which means he needs to stay one step ahead of the school's disciplinary officer, Mr. Needles.
The only problem is Desmond just can't stop pulling pranks---like the time he attached a shrieking rubber goblin to the toilet seat in the teachers' bathroom. Mrs. Rubin screamed so loudly her wig flew off! Or the time he put giant motorized worms into the mashed potatoes in the cafeteria. Or the time Desmond and his best friend, Ricky, arranged for a three-headed ghost to crash his sister's slumber party. Rachel still hasn't forgiven him.
And now Desmond has to stay prank-free for the rest of the year, or he won't be able to go on the class trip to Crab Shell Pier, home of the Mountain Full of Monsters ride! It's going to be tough, but Desmond has to try.
This book includes a section of "Desmond's Notes": instructions for making monster magic (think scary noises, or fake blood) at home!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tatulli, creator of the syndicated comics Heart of the City and Lio, jumps to Wimpy Kid style illustrated fiction with the story of self-described "Gourmet of Gore" Desmond Pucket. Like a budding Ray Harryhausen, Desmond loves nothing more than designing monstrous special effects. When readers meet him, he has awakened his mother in the middle of the night, complaining of a stomachache: "A large red stain spreads across my belly... and a slimy, multi-eyed, many fanged creature breaks out of my stomach with a screech, its tentacles jiggling and blood spurting from the gaping hole!" ("Are those the new pajamas I just bought you?" his mother sighs in the accompanying cartoon.) Despite Desmond's flair for the dramatic, his life is grounded in reality: he joins a series of clubs to try to avoid expulsion, as well as qualify for a sixth-grade class trip. Tatulli's sometimes-gruesome caricatures have the feel of George Booth by way of Ralph Steadman, and while the story's jokes don't always hit the mark, readers will walk away with plenty of mischievous ammunition. Ages 7 12.
