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gimpyknee's review against another edition
4.0
Take Doc Savage and add Indiana Jones and you get Doc Wilde. Fun pulp fiction for kids and the young at heart.
dantastic's review against another edition
3.0
Grandpa Wilde has disappeared and it's up to Doc Wilde and his two kids to track him down. What does Grandpa's disappearance have to do with a mysterious photo of him beside a strange frog-shaped cave?
Doc Wilde is an adventure pulp in the vein of Doc Savage, whom Grandpa Wilde is a dead ringer for. If I was twenty years younger, it would quite possibly be one of my favorite books. How many YA books do you know of that feature dark matter, the Cthulhu mythos, and nanites, all wrapped in a Doc Savage style adventure tale?
My gripes with this book are minor and all involve the format. The two page chapters were annoying, as were the sound effects and word balloons inserted into the text.
Doc Wilde is an adventure pulp in the vein of Doc Savage, whom Grandpa Wilde is a dead ringer for. If I was twenty years younger, it would quite possibly be one of my favorite books. How many YA books do you know of that feature dark matter, the Cthulhu mythos, and nanites, all wrapped in a Doc Savage style adventure tale?
My gripes with this book are minor and all involve the format. The two page chapters were annoying, as were the sound effects and word balloons inserted into the text.
book_nut's review
4.0
Mutant frogs. Intelligent adventurers. Awesome title. Doesn't get much better than this.
faerwalder's review
4.0
I loved this book, and especially where it led me. It led me to the classic pulps of the early 20th century, Doc Savage especially. Then, my personal favorite, The Shadow. They played a huge role in inspiring my own writing.
For the book itself, it was a great and enjoyable read. The plot went fast, was quite surprising, and grabbed my attention and held it like a steam-clamp. The characters were great as well, especially Doc Wilde and his relationship with his kids.
I'm definitely looking forward to more Doc Wilde adventures.
For the book itself, it was a great and enjoyable read. The plot went fast, was quite surprising, and grabbed my attention and held it like a steam-clamp. The characters were great as well, especially Doc Wilde and his relationship with his kids.
I'm definitely looking forward to more Doc Wilde adventures.
tami_provencher's review
4.0
Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom is FUN! For kids who like cartoons like The Secret Saturdays or movies like Spy Kids, this book is for you! Doc Wilde is a famous adventurer, known for fighting evil villains and monsters. His children, Brian and Wren, often join him on his adventures.
In this story, Grandpa Wilde (Doc’s father) has gone missing in the Rainforest of South America. The only clue is a photograph of Grandpa standing in the mouth of a cave (carved to look like a giant frog with fangs) and a small frog made from a single piece of emerald with ruby red eyes, which he somehow managed to send to Grandma before he disappeared.
Before the Wildes have even left for the Rainforest they encounter spy frogs outside the 86th floor of the Empire State Building and mutated Frog Men on the roof. Brian even falls from the 86th floor trying to capture a spy frog for observation!
Trained in various martial arts and survival skills since birth, the Wildes finally set off for South America to find and rescue Grandpa. Their rescue attempt quickly becomes a mission to save the world from an evil alien Frog and his manaical worshipers.
The story takes itself seriously enough to be a rollicking thrill ride and is still told with enough humor and old-fashioned adventure to engage the reader at every turn. I highly recommend this book as a fun read-aloud or independent reading selection–particularly for students who enjoy the adventure genre!
In this story, Grandpa Wilde (Doc’s father) has gone missing in the Rainforest of South America. The only clue is a photograph of Grandpa standing in the mouth of a cave (carved to look like a giant frog with fangs) and a small frog made from a single piece of emerald with ruby red eyes, which he somehow managed to send to Grandma before he disappeared.
Before the Wildes have even left for the Rainforest they encounter spy frogs outside the 86th floor of the Empire State Building and mutated Frog Men on the roof. Brian even falls from the 86th floor trying to capture a spy frog for observation!
Trained in various martial arts and survival skills since birth, the Wildes finally set off for South America to find and rescue Grandpa. Their rescue attempt quickly becomes a mission to save the world from an evil alien Frog and his manaical worshipers.
The story takes itself seriously enough to be a rollicking thrill ride and is still told with enough humor and old-fashioned adventure to engage the reader at every turn. I highly recommend this book as a fun read-aloud or independent reading selection–particularly for students who enjoy the adventure genre!
thomasroche's review
4.0
I had to go well out of my way to find a copy of this puppy at an out of town library -- which I did, because of my interest in Doc Savage, on which the Doc/Dad character is based. This middle grade readers adventure story, about an inventor's family going on an adventure to rescue the grandfather from Lovecraftian frog-creatures, is adorable. There are lots of fun inventions and lots of caves, aircraft adventures, etc. It's a great idea and plenty of fun, and if the formatting doesn't bother you then you'll love it even more than I did. If you've got kids (or nephews, nieces, etc) who like adventure fiction, archaeology, science, travel, etc, then this is definitely worth a try.
However, from an adult perspective, I found the formatting the only displeasing thing about it; there are a lot of call-outs, pull quotes, speech bubbles and over 60 chapters in a 186-page book, which broke me up every time I got into a reading flow. I've read zillions of books for middle grade readers, so while it's probably not as jarring to younger readers, I'm pretty familiar with the general principles of the genre and I love middle-grade books. The formatting was supposed to be "innovative" and "clever." Maybe kids would like it, but it made my copyeditor bells go DING DING DING constantly and I swear there were electric sparks shooting out of my ears at times. In the copyediting trade we used to call these formatting tricks "schoolgirling," which is utterly inappropriate when it occurs in a physician's paper on a study of a new chemotherapy-supportive care drug, but really, when used in children's adventure fiction it shouldn't bother the reader. I mean, it's for, you know, schoolgirls, right? But I'm a geezer. It didn't sour me on the book by any stretch, but I had to struggle to get through it.
Which is too bad, because the story's fun and cute and entertaining, and there's lots of fun scientific speculation in it. So if you're not a crotchety old slowly decaying copyeditor from the big city with french roast pumping through his veins and a permanent scowl on his wrinkled face, you'll probably enjoy it even more than I did.
However, from an adult perspective, I found the formatting the only displeasing thing about it; there are a lot of call-outs, pull quotes, speech bubbles and over 60 chapters in a 186-page book, which broke me up every time I got into a reading flow. I've read zillions of books for middle grade readers, so while it's probably not as jarring to younger readers, I'm pretty familiar with the general principles of the genre and I love middle-grade books. The formatting was supposed to be "innovative" and "clever." Maybe kids would like it, but it made my copyeditor bells go DING DING DING constantly and I swear there were electric sparks shooting out of my ears at times. In the copyediting trade we used to call these formatting tricks "schoolgirling," which is utterly inappropriate when it occurs in a physician's paper on a study of a new chemotherapy-supportive care drug, but really, when used in children's adventure fiction it shouldn't bother the reader. I mean, it's for, you know, schoolgirls, right? But I'm a geezer. It didn't sour me on the book by any stretch, but I had to struggle to get through it.
Which is too bad, because the story's fun and cute and entertaining, and there's lots of fun scientific speculation in it. So if you're not a crotchety old slowly decaying copyeditor from the big city with french roast pumping through his veins and a permanent scowl on his wrinkled face, you'll probably enjoy it even more than I did.
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