No More Dead Dogs

Title: No More Dead Dogs
Author: Gordon Korman

What it's about: Wallace Wallace, football star of Bedford Middle School, is on detention and off the team. When Wallace is assigned a book review for Old Shep, My Pal, he tells the truth and says that he hates it. The problem is, Wallace's English teacher Mr. Fogelman loves the book - in fact, he's adapted it into a play that the school's drama club will be performing. So until Wallace writes a book review that satisfies Mr. Fogelman, he has to sit in on the drama club's rehearsals. Wallace isn't the only one who's upset about this. Rachel Turner, a seventh grade girl and Serious Actress, finds Wallace's comments on the play to be disrespectful and irritating, and it doesn't help that her best friend Trudi fawns all over Wallace. Add to that the fact that a mysterious someone is sabotaging the play, and you've got a wild theatrical adventure.

What I thought: First of all, the characters in this story are good. There are four viewpoint characters, and they range from the Wallace the hero, to Rachel the long-suffering drama queen, to Trudi the ditz, to Mr. Fogelman the uptight teacher. But while you can assign stereotypes to these guys, and to quite a few other characters in the book, those labels aren't the whole of their characters. (Well, maybe for Trudi... But she's comic relief, anyway.) Also, a book that gives a good portrayal of drama geeks is always awesome. The plot is light and funny, things are over-the-top in a good way, and the characters have realistic development arcs. This is a solid read for a younger crowd (high school age).

Overall: A fun and funny book.