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chrissyd40d9's review
3.0
My son and I have read this entire series now. We enjoyed this one but found it short and not quite as intriguing as Poop Fountain.
hollowspine's review
3.0
The second in the series has the three Qwikpick adventurers searching desperately yet again for an adventure to take before
Lyle Herzog starts out the story basically saying that he always thought he was a ‘good kid,’ but now he’s been labelled a bad kid. Then he goes on to explain how he became a bad kid during the adventure of searching for the Rat with a Human Face.
Again Lyle worries and gets frustrated with people’s assumptions about him due to the fact that he lives in a trailer park. He’s tired of hearing jokes about ‘double wides’ when his family dreams of moving into a double wide. He’s tired of people assuming that he’s a bad kid, or dumb, just because he lives in a trailer.
Fueled by a competition to win Marilla’s affection, especially before the band trip that is all Marilla and Dave can talk about, the three decide to take the expensive and dangerous mission of finding the Rat with the Human Face in a closed research facility. One of the elements that had me thinking was that Dave pays for both Lyle and Marilla to go on a bus trip and both Marilla and Lyle are made uncomfortable by his insistence that they can ‘pay him back,’ realizing how different Dave viewed what to them was an insane amount of money.
All three, however, feel the pressure of the money when they keep encountering problem after problem and it looks like the money might have been spent for nothing. In this book they face more problems between the three members of the club than in the first book.
I also liked how even though Lyle views Dave as his rival and sometimes felt irritated by Dave’s wealthy family and domineering leadership style he also acknowledged when Dave was right and why Dave is his best friend, all three characters have the chance both to shine and to fail. Although I thought that the Poop Fountain was a stronger overall novel, I enjoyed this search for the humanly faced rat as well and liked the further development of the three characters here.
Lyle Herzog starts out the story basically saying that he always thought he was a ‘good kid,’ but now he’s been labelled a bad kid. Then he goes on to explain how he became a bad kid during the adventure of searching for the Rat with a Human Face.
Again Lyle worries and gets frustrated with people’s assumptions about him due to the fact that he lives in a trailer park. He’s tired of hearing jokes about ‘double wides’ when his family dreams of moving into a double wide. He’s tired of people assuming that he’s a bad kid, or dumb, just because he lives in a trailer.
Fueled by a competition to win Marilla’s affection, especially before the band trip that is all Marilla and Dave can talk about, the three decide to take the expensive and dangerous mission of finding the Rat with the Human Face in a closed research facility. One of the elements that had me thinking was that Dave pays for both Lyle and Marilla to go on a bus trip and both Marilla and Lyle are made uncomfortable by his insistence that they can ‘pay him back,’ realizing how different Dave viewed what to them was an insane amount of money.
All three, however, feel the pressure of the money when they keep encountering problem after problem and it looks like the money might have been spent for nothing. In this book they face more problems between the three members of the club than in the first book.
I also liked how even though Lyle views Dave as his rival and sometimes felt irritated by Dave’s wealthy family and domineering leadership style he also acknowledged when Dave was right and why Dave is his best friend, all three characters have the chance both to shine and to fail. Although I thought that the Poop Fountain was a stronger overall novel, I enjoyed this search for the humanly faced rat as well and liked the further development of the three characters here.
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