Gr 5-7-When Tad receives his father's old computer as a Christmas gift, he decides to start a blog. In his first post, he announces his New Year resolutions: to get through seventh grade, learn to do a kickflip on his skateboard, have girls notice him, and start to shave. What follows are the trials and tribulations of a year in the life of the Lakeville middle schooler, including a mystery to solve when someone leaves notes signed, "You're Secret Admirer" in his locker. He also has a way of complicating even the simplest situation. Humorous pencil illustrations accompany the riotous narrative. Fans of Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series (Abrams) will find Tad's blog equally engaging.-Wayne R. Cherry, Jr., First Baptist Academy Library, Houston, TX (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Cruising happily in the Wimpy Kid wake, this blog-entry novel from the head writer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart introduces 12-year-old Tad and everything he goes through over the course of a year spanning seventh and eighth grade. And what does he go through? Well, not all that much that's worth mentioning, but that doesn't keep him from jabbering on about whatever strikes his fancy. Tad is an observational humorist in the making, ruminating on such imponderables as: Why isn't the snooze button called the oversleep button? If you can be disgruntled, why can't you be gruntled? How is it that Batman ended up with both the Joker and the Riddler as enemies, and do they ever worry about stepping on each other's toes? And are there really so many Jabbas that he needs to be clarified as the Hutt? It's all fluff and little else, but there's nothing wrong with having a refined and often clever confectionery read for Tad's middle-school male cohorts. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This book is based on a blog from MAD magazine, so it already has plenty of built-in demand. A big marketing push will make sure it catches the eyes of kids who aren't already down with Tad.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
