It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds is a fast paced juvenile fiction book for 4-6th graders.
Twelve-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway plans to enjoy the most epic summer ever! And he has a very meticulous plan to get through it with the least amount of time spent on chores. When his plan backfires, he is left home to do half a summers worth of laundry instead of enjoying Beach Bash, the event of the summer!
With only a clean pair of swim trunks to wear, Eddie gets to work. That is, until the power goes out. Home alone, with no grownups and only a few of his friends from school still on the block, Eddie soon realizes that no one is on their way to help.
With no way to contact their parents and no clue about what is going on, Eddie and his friends are going to have to figure it out, on their own.
This was a fun, light-hearted book by Justin Reynolds. Eddie has your typical tween problems, a girl he likes that doesn't know he exists, a step-dad that drives him crazy, an older brother who is full of teen angst, and grand plans that constantly get crushed by that dreaded thing called chores. Eddie also has ADHD, and an extremely positive outlook on his ADHD, which was refreshing. What wasn't refreshing was how, I'm guessing, Reynolds plays to this in the pacing of the narrative. Talk about whiplash.
This was like reading a book on speed. The narrative is fast to begin with and then we get these really random tangents from Eddie, which are funny but also makes the story stutter a bit. On more than one occasion, I did a mental head shake thinking, "what just happened?" I do, however, think this was intentional to show how the mind of someone with ADHD works. I'm just assuming that and if that is the case, mission accomplished. It just made for slightly disjointed reading.
Not a bad read and I think many kids would find it funny but it wasn't my favorite and the ending was super abrupt. This one gets 3ish stars from me.
That's all for now!
-M-