Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-6. The farce is as furious and silly as ever in the latest hilarious spoof about the boys in the time-warp trio. Here, they travel not through time but to the library, where they get mixed up with the characters from the books on the summer reading list. An evil teddy bear and his gang try to kill off all the characters and take over every book. The trio is aghast to see Dracula dragging Winnie the Pooh in a headlock, George and Martha being chased by Long John Silver, and Frankenstein holding Pippi Longstocking. As in Smith and Scieszka's fractured fairy tales, you have to know the original stories to get the jokes. The funniest spoof is of Little House on the Prairieif only there were more of it. You will want to stay longer with each character, but it's just as well the story jumps around: if the parody were sustained, you would never be able to read the classic stories again without hearing these solemn takeoffs. The art was not included in the galley; it will be fun to see what Smith does with the various scenarios. A natural choice for reading aloud and acting out, this includes the bonus of a perfectly serious summer reading list at the back, with a not-so-serious study guide. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-This talented author/illustrator team has produced some great picture books, but the "Time Warp Trio" chapter-book series is just as funny. This installment offers nonstop literary humor, as Joe, Sam, and Fred get mixed up with characters from every book on their summer reading list. Well-read kids will enjoy seeing characters they recognize in this bizarre setting, as the trio is captured by a crew of villains and rogues from children's literature. Subtle pokes at series fiction, boy books vs. girl books, and teddy bear stories add to the fun. "The Girl," whose identity is a mixture of female heroines from Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, and several other titles that the three heroes would never be caught dead reading, bores the villains to sleep with her plot summaries. Booktalk Through Humor Award: The Summer Reading List at the end is actually quite a good one. Kids will recognize some old favorites and maybe try new ones. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In another installment in the popular series, literary mayhem ensues when the boys are transported into a jumbled gathering of all the characters from the books on their school's summer reading list. Like they did in [cf2]The Stinky Cheese Man[cf1], Scieszka and Smith poke fun at literary conventions as they spin a clever scenario of what might happen if Frog and Toad, Long John Silver, Ramona, and other children's fiction notables ended up on the same page. From HORN BOOK Spring 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In this latest Time Warp Trio entry, Fred, Joe, and Sam have sworn off using that volume of dangerous time-travel, The Book. When Fred sticks Sam's summer reading list inside it, they find themselves whisked off, not to another time, but to a world where all the characters from the books on the list are congregated, where the evil characters are determined to crush all the good characters and take over the stories. Aided by the Girl, who seems to be a composite of female heroines from all the formula series books the boys never read, Fred, Joe, and Sam battle the leader of the bad guys, an embittered Mr. Bear (``Just because I'm a teddy bear, I get no respect'') to find The Book and get back to the real world. Filled with humorous action and suspense, this book will have special appeal to those who get the hip-deep references to dozens of children's books (without such understanding, the middle section becomes somewhat incomprehensible). With plenty of action and silly humor, the book itself is a pretty good addition to summer reading lists. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 7-11)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
