The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy: Kinda Average

The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy is a series by William Boniface that probably will appeal mostly to boys in the middle grades.

The premise is that everyone has a special, superhuman (sorta), superhero type of power - everyone except Ordinary Boy (aka OB), of course.

Most of the powers are relatively useless. OB, despite not apparently having any, still manages to be the hero of this tale.

The first half, or so, of this book (and I didn't read any others in the series) seems to ramble on without having much direction. The author has a lot of characters to introduce, which is fine, but in the process the main thread of the plot just never gets formed.

There are only 2 more books in the series: The Return of Meteor Boy? and The Great Powers Outage.

Many children probably won't notice this or even care because of the unusual characters they meet.

So based on just this one book, I'd call this a middle-of-the-road series as far as quality and the ability to hold the reader's interest is concerned. It gets a thumbs sideways and a little more than a meh.

Emily Windsnap: A Fish out of Water?

I had no idea going into this book, The Tail of Emily Windsnap, what it was about. I guess "Tail" should have tipped me off. I hadn't read the small print on the cover that says, "Girl next door. Best friend. Mermaid."

If that sounds a little strange, that's because it is.

Actually, the author, Liz Kessler, makes you about as comfortable with the concept as possible, which is a good thing, since this is, after all, a children's book.

It turns out that the title character is the child of a merman and a human mother. I guess this book is for young children who don't ask too many questions...? But it feels like a book for 3rd or 4th graders, so I think they just might wonder how such a union is possible.

Apparently the original book (the only one I read) was popular enough to create more of them. I have no inclination to read any of them though.

For me, there was way too much showing, versus telling, in the story. And there were a lot of rhetorical questions. Paraphrasing from memory...Will she make it? Would she fit through? How was it possible? Why didn't she remember? Who did he think he was?...Ya know what I mean?

I don't highly recommend this series, but I guess it works for some (girls). I can't see boys wanting to read these. If Charlotte's Web is a 10, then Emily Windsnap is a 4.

Charlotte Weaves a Web

"'Good-bye!' she whispered. Then she summoned all her strength and waved one of her front legs at him.

"She never moved again."

I choked up a bit when I read that line. I had read Charlotte's Web when I was in college...I think. If so, it would have been as part of "Kiddie Lit" class.

I read this annotated version  - The Annotated Charlotte's Web - again now to help me become a better writer. It is not included in the series books that currently comprise most of this blog. After all, it's not part of a series.

Getting back to the quotation above, the annotation associated with it says this.

"In Box 2, in the folder dealing with the proposed film version, [author, E. B.] White wrote:

When Charlotte dies, the story teller should be heard saying those words that begin, "She never moved again." I cannot tell you why or how those words have the power to move people, but is [sic] has been clearly established they do. Librarians, schoolteachers, mothers, fathers and children all seem to break apart when they hear those words. I had no idea what I was up to when I was writing them, but I wouldn't want to see them omitted from the script. You would be passing up the single most telling paragraph of the book.

In fact, the words 'She never moved again' were not included in the film."

It's good to know I'm not alone.

If you haven't read Charlotte's Web recently (or even if you have), you should find a young one to read it to.

Just be prepared for that line.