Mo O'HaraCritiques

What a fun take on the story of Romeo and Juliet!! Instead, we have Carnivores and Herbivores and never shall the two meet ;)

No seriously....

We still have character names Like Tybalt and Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet. It's not so much about love but rather about friendship. That makes it easier for storytime/

The only thing is that there is a LOT of dialogue. If using in a storytime, I would try to find places to shorten it!

Story of a zombie goldfish and a vampire kitten nextdoor

Lancelot and dinosaurs ... great story!!

Title: The Legend of King Arthur-A-Tops
Author: Mo O’Hara
Illustrator: Andrew Joyner
Publisher: Harper
Copyright: 2020
Hardback X Paperback Board Book Number of Pages
Fiction X Nonfiction
Age/Grade: Preschool through 2nd Grade
Format: Picture Book
Illustration Type: Line Drawings/Color
Illustration Rating: Very Good
Genres: Adventure/Adventure/Folklore/Family
Literary Merit: Very Good
Characterization: Very Good
Evaluation: Recommended
Worch Memorial Library Reviewer: Patty Simon Date: 5/4/2020
Review: The author takes a classic tale and makes it fun and easy for younger children to understand. It also helps children to believe in themselves and t keep trying. The illustrations are colorful and I like the feel of the pages.

As an adult I find this book really funny. I'm not sure how kids would react. If they don't know the basic plot of Romeo and Juliet I don't think it would be as fun.

Knew this was going to be a weird ride when it began with a little brother being a bratty kid and mishearing hormonal as "home-moanal" then saying "he's been moaning a lot" because that is hilarious on so many levels adult and child.

From there it's a quick read, Tom comes off autistic in ways, as he displays a weird amount of literal thinking. Finger sandwiches don't have fingers in them. Dead meat is well, dead meat. On the double he expects a clone of his friend to appear. And so forth. It's clear he has either a wild imagination or signs of early autism like some autistic kids possess.

I expected Frankie to be evil, given he's born from an evil science experiment, but rather, he's simply a fish, albeit one who can hypnotize.

Seeing there's more of these books, I just might try to read past this one. They're fast reads, providing a swift plot with bare bones included, but it's a ride regardless.

Mark and his friend Sanj go to Evil Scientist summer camp. While there a falling out occurs so they get different partners when it comes to making an Evil trap. There is also a rule that no pets are allowed but some bring their pets and have to hide them and worry about being called out for the pets.

This is a good set-up for the series. I liked Mark eventually. He drove me a little crazy at the beginning. I also like Geek Girl and Igor who turn out to be good friends to Mark. The camp counselors are jerks in my opinion. It is a fun read and the kids hide pets and build traps and generally get into trouble. I look forward to the next book.

Mo O'Hara, creator of the popular My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish chapter-book series, turns to Shakespeare in this entertaining new picture-book, and the results are hilarious. As the great bard himself wrote (sort of): "Ne're a tale made a child laugh more / Than Juliet Rex and her Romeosaur..." The tale of star-crossed friends, this dinosaur-friendly romp follow the eponymous characters as they attempt to bridge the divide between herbivores and carnivores...

Although her chapter-books do very well at work, I have never happened to pick any up any of them, so Romeosaurus and Juliet Rex was my first exposure to Mo O'Hara's work. What a wonderful and wicked sense of humor she has - I chuckled aloud on more than one occasion, while reading this one! The accompanying artwork by Australian illustrator Andrew Joyner is colorful and cute, although I didn't find it quite as entertaining as the text. Recommended to anyone looking for amusing new picture-book romps, especially those featuring dinosaurs and/or Shakespearean themes.

Mark and his best friend, Sanj are going to have an epic summer. They enroll in Evil Scientist Summer Camp. No pesky little brothers. No annoying goldfish. Just a notebook full of evil plans, and Marks truly evil and forbidden vampire kitten, named Fang. They have the whole week planned out. Geeky Girl shows up and Sanj finds a new partner to work with. Mark must figure out how he will still have an epically evil summer after all. I would recommend this for fans of the Zombie Goldfish series. The story is easy to follow and the characters are typical boys. There are fun illustrations throughout the book as well.

This isn't my favorite easy, humor book for reluctant readers, but it's definitely worth a recommendation to those middle grade boys who think reading is as bad as getting a cavity filled (without novocaine).

Tom's ultra mean older brother gets a chemistry set and the first thing he does is make a concoction to put in the goldfish bowl for his science assignment. Tom is a soft kind of kid and can't just stand by an watch the goldfish die. So he SOSes his best friend Pradeep and hustles the fish to the bathroom to wash off all the gunk, but it's too late. The fish goes belly-up. But Tom doesn't give up. He grabs a battery and zaps the fish back to life, hence the new name Frankie (Frankenstein). The bad news is that Frankie is now a zombie, and he hates Tom's evil brother Mark who started this in the first place. The odd thing is that if you stare into Frankie's zombie eyes, you will go into a zombie trance. Mark figures this out and hijacks the school's computer system to transmit a picture of Frankie so everyone will go into a zombie trance and be under his control.

Ok, so the plot is out there, absurd really. Which is why I can only give it 3 stars. I kind of felt like this could have been written by a kid. It doesn't have the finesse of [b: Stickdog] or [b: Timmy Failure|15798116|Mistakes Were Made (Timmy Failure, #1)|Stephan Pastis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1354889587s/15798116.jpg|21521034], but the book cover is great and kids love anything about zombies, so recommend away.

Literary Merit: Good
Characterization: Good
Recommended: Recommended
Level: Elementary

Fans of the My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish will pick up this latest title, Jurassic Carp in the series. Frank is great at saving the day, but he faces his biggest challenge yet. Tom's evil brother decides to clone a Jurassic Carp. He wonders if the school can survive with two Zombie goldfish. He is also going to be a knight in the medieval day reenactment joust and might have to be a real live knight to save the day. I would recommend this title for fans of the series and if they have the others in the series.

zombie goldfish, vampire kitten

Summary:
The main character Tom has an older brother who decides to become an evil scientist. His brother, Mark, has a school experiment which he decides to use a goldfish for. The fish Frankie is exposed to the toxicity of the experiment, and dies. Being the character Tom is, he uses a battery in hopes that Frankie will come back to life and when he does, he isn't the same fish anymore..he is a ZOMBIE fish!

Personal Reaction:
My son comes home with these books he gets from his school library and he is always talking about how great they are. Well he certainly has a sense of humor because this book is so funny! I found myself laughing out loud on the first page from the humor of the sibling rivalry and how Tom refers to his brother Mark as evil. I think it is cute because I can see the reactions of Mark and Tom in both my two older boys, as well as relate to it back in my childhood between my younger brother and myself.

Class Extension Ideas:
1. The class can conduct an experiment on pollution after reading the story.
2. Do a pet show and tell. Students can bring a picture of their pets and after showing them to the class, they can do an activity where they write a short story about what their pets would do if they were zombies.