timweakland

3.5 STARS I loved the first book in the Wonderbar series (Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow) and began to devour the sequel as quickly as Jacob devoured those corndogs! The premise is intriguing —the King of the Universe asks Jacob to run against the king’s own son in the first-ever election for President of the Universe. As the king’s son is none other than the notorious space pirate Mick Cracken, it doesn’t seem like Jacob will have too much trouble defeating him—until Jacob learns that many of the Astrals (those living on other planets) don’t much like Earth-dwellers and that some of them even want Earth destroyed before the Earth-dwellers decide to spread their many wars galaxy-wide. Soon, Jacob’s desire to be elected moves beyond personal pride and a wish that maybe, just maybe, his absentee father will finally contact him if he is President of the Universe, to having to save all of humanity and his own home planet! Somewhere along the way, my enthusiasm for Jacob’s second adventure waned just a bit. Several of the chapters felt too rushed, too choppy, especially when Jacob, Dexter and Sarah Daisy were all in different places. While I know it’s important to keep a steady pace and not drag things out, especially when writing for children, I think a few more transitions and explanations would have enhanced the story. I feel that all of the plot points had merit, but some just weren’t executed that well. I also wanted a bit more character development; for example, we are told a character has “really changed” but I didn’t feel like I saw enough change through his/her actions. Still, some chapters were absolutely brilliant (mostly those involving satire of the election process and the media!) I wonder if some of the wit would go over kid’s heads. Then again, it is a great way to get kids thinking about the election process—from the good (people having the right to choose their leader) to the bad (sometimes one of your choices might just happen to be a bit of a criminal) to the ugly (the lies and slander from opponents and also the media favoritism). An example of one of my favorite quotes: "Slogans aren't *lying* ... You take one of your weaknesses and say the exact opposite, but in a way that's not technically lying. ... If you were head of an Earther company that accidentally turned a river purple, you'd say 'Protecting the Environment One River at a Time!' That line is genius because the one river you were protecting at the time wasn't the one you turned purple." – Mick Cracken. and another: “The less you *want* to be a leader, the better leader shall you be.” -- King of the Universe And the whole segment with Sarah Daisy’s A-word gaffe is just outstanding! It really shows how the media can runaway with one little misstep (even if the person never meant any harm) and that the media has such tremendous power and influence. Again, as an adult I thought this was brilliant. As a kid, I’m not sure I would have “got” all of it—but this would be a great read-aloud and discussion starter for families, especially with 2012 being a presidential election year, the timing couldn’t be better. So, while all in all I felt this was a more flawed book than the first in the Wonderbar series (and that cliffhanger ending kinda irked me; the last chapter felt a bit like bait to get us to read the third book) I definitely so plan to read the third book (didn't even need that last chapter to entice me). I hope it has all the intellectual depth and wit of this book with the stronger storytelling of the first.

2022-10-10 15:46