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    Kid vs. Squid
    Unavailable
    Kid vs. Squid
    Unavailable
    Kid vs. Squid
    Ebook156 pages2 hours

    Kid vs. Squid

    By Greg van Eekhout

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle's seaside Museum of Curiosities. But when a mysterious girl steals an artifact from the museum, Thatcher's summer becomes an adventure that takes him from the top of the ferris wheel to the depths of the sea. Following the thief, he learns that she is a princess of the lost Atlantis. Her people have been cursed by an evil witch to drift at sea all winter and wash up on shore each summer to an even more terrible fate-working the midway games and food stands on the boardwalk. Can Thatcher help save them before he, too, succumbs to the witch's curse?


    With sharp, witty writing that reads like a middle-grade Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Greg van Eekhout's first book for young readers is a wild ride packed with as many laughs as it has thrills.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateApr 10, 2011
    ISBN9781599907949
    Unavailable
    Kid vs. Squid
    Author

    Greg van Eekhout

    Greg van Eekhout lives in San Diego, California, with his astronomy/physics professor wife and two dogs. He’s worked as an educational software developer, ice-cream scooper, part-time college instructor, and telemarketer. Being a writer is the only job he’s ever actually liked. You can find more about Greg at his website: writingandsnacks.com.

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    Reviews for Kid vs. Squid

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Sometimes you just need a gentle, whimsical book that makes you feel like a kid again. That's what I needed this week, and that's why I picked up Greg Van Eekhout's book. I bought it at Phoenix Comicon and had it signed to my son.I would have enjoyed this as a kid, too, even if it gets a little creepy at times. I love how it uses the California coast as a setting (it even mentions Pismo later on, a familiar place for me), with a boy abandoned in his weird uncle's museum of strange things for his summer vacation. The town's tourism season mysteriously starts overnight, and Thatcher discovers things only get weirder from there. Thatcher has a great voice. He babbles, he's not perfect, but he makes a great team with the two strong girls in the book, Shoal and Trudy; I really loved Trudy! It's a solid middle grade book for boys or girls.
    • 1/5
      A kid farmed out to a relative for the summer, a witches head in a box, the lost city of Atlantis, weird characters, weird creatures, the promise of weird adventures... This book has all the elements that could and should work for me in a middle grade book and yet I wasn't 20 pages in and already I wanted to jump to the end. Not jump-to-the-end-because-I'm-excited-to-find-out-how-it-ends but jump-to-the-end-so-I-can-say-I-finished-it-and-move-on-to-something-else. I really did struggle with the fact that I could simply put the book down and move on but felt I was somehow cheating the book out of a promise to read it.I've talked a little about promise before, the promise of the book (and the author) to the reader, and the reciprocal promise of reader to book. When starting a book both reader and book enter into a contract that is an agreement that involves emotion, investment, and a willingness to suspend disbelief for a period of time in exchange for a return on that investment. Most of the time that agreement is silent and in the background – the only time it becomes an issue is when one side fails to keep up their end.So when a book doesn't work for me to the extent that I simply cannot continue I cannot ignore the fact that the problem is half mine, but only half. I have read books that I didn't necessarily like or enjoy but nonetheless finished because there was something inherent in the story that at least compelled me to continue. To that end, the book has held up its end by giving me something in return for my time. But when the book causes me to wonder if there's something wrong with me for not wanting to continue, when the actual phrase "return on investment" pops into my head when considering pushing onward, then I know the fault isn't entirely my own. Partially, but not entirely. I've seen stories with kids getting farmed out by distracted and disinterested parents, but that wasn't it. I've seen stories of outsider kids suddenly in a otherwise unseen alterna-verse where the adventure requires them to save that day, so that wasn't the problem. I've seen eccentric relatives, otherworld tricksters, smart detective girl sidekicks... but for whatever reason Kid vs. Squid was like a jello that never set for me. The ingredients were there but... nothing. So I did it, I jumped to the end, confirmed what I suspected would be the ending, imagined everything in between, and let it go.Then I felt bad. I felt like I hadn't given the book a fair shake. Perhaps it was a question of not being in the mood to read (it happens, right?), you know, maybe everything I tried to read would taste like ash at the moment? So I picked up another middle grade book to see if I wasn't too hasty in my distractability.And 180 pages into that other book I had to face that it wasn't because I wasn't in a reading mood.As always, my rule is Read everything and judge for yourself. It isn't a question of right and wrong when it comes to reviews but what's right and wrong for you. Kid vs. Squid just wasn't right for me.
    • 4/5
      This is a book with a lot to live up to. First off, it’s called Kid Vs. Squid. Is it possible to come up with an awesomer title for a middle grade book? I’ve tried, and until I’m presented with evidence to the contrary I’m going to assume that this is the awesomest middle grade title of all time. After considering the title, we move on to the cover. A young man who looks like he probably has his own show on the Disney Channel leans nonchalantly on a weapon while a giant squid looms in the background giving him the evil eye. Again, this is a cover with an awesome-factor that is almost off the charts. So, the big question: can a book possibly live up to all this awesome-ness?I’m glad to say that somehow this book does it. Thatcher is spending his summer in Las Huesas, California with his great-uncle. A summer without parents in a beach town sounds pretty good – until you meet the great-uncle and see the beach town. Las Huesas is strangely deserted, and Uncle Griswald has a bad habit of forgetting about basic things like food and lives inside Professor Griswald’s Museum of the Strange and Curious – which is even creepier and mustier than it sounds. Phone and internet don’t seem to work in Las Huesas, so the only contact Thatcher has with the outside world is postcards from his parents that say things like “Dear Thatcher, We think we’ve found a great deal on polymer injection molds! Love and huggies.” (pg. 12, quotes taken from ARC and are subject to change.) Worst of all, the only kids around are a couple of guys on bikes who keep muttering about “flotsam” and look a little bit like squid. Things take a turn for the exciting when Thatcher catches a burglar in the act of stealing the museum’s prize What-Is-It. Giving chase, Thatcher finds himself in the middle of the town’s mystery, and he has to battle a curse-happy witch and some seriously nasty sea creatures. Along the way Thatcher joins forces with Shoal, a princess of the Lost City of Atlantis, and Trudy, who is a hysterical cross between Nancy Drew and Batman.It all sounds pretty ridiculous. And it is pretty ridiculous – but the tone is somewhere in between charging into this goofy story with no holds barred and slyly self-aware, and somehow van Eekhout hits that sweet spot that lets you laugh at how silly the story is and genuinely care about what happens at the same time. And the silliness really is laugh-out-loud funny. Thatcher, as the narrator, is definitely central to making the tone of this book work. He is a naturally funny guy, and the kind of person who just starts running his mouth when he gets confused or scared. As he puts it,I respond to bullies and teachers with funny comments, sharp little put-downs, and sometimes if my victim shows signs of weakness, I can’t stop myself. My words are like a cheetah taking down a gazelle by the throat. (pg. 8.)But Thatcher, a man of words, is tossed into situation after situation where he has to step outside of his comfort zone and take action. Especially since his words get him into trouble as often as they get him out of it – as it turns out, talking back to a witch is not the best of ideas. Luckily he has the delightful Trudy to back him up, and to pull a never-ending number of supplies and gadgets out of her backpack. Trudy is a force of nature, and it’s her enthusiasm that convinces Thatcher to ditch his usual habit of commenting from the sidelines.The pace of this book is quick, especially as it gets to the climax. In the last few chapters the action gets a little bit too frantic – the book is at it’s best when Thatcher’s voice and wry sense of humor can really shine through. But the fast pace and constant action will pull readers along, making this a great choice for reluctant readers. Between the great action, the sense of humor, and the mythology of the lost City of Atlantis, I would definitely hand this to my younger Percy Jackson fans.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely loved this book. It's a clever and fun little novel for tweens about a boy who seems doomed to have the worst summer vacation ever. But after a run in with some boys who remind him of squid, Thatcher discovers that not everyone is who they seem. Part adventure and part thriller, Kid Vs. Squid is fun, and not just for kids.