Weird Kid audiobook

Wonderful silly Middle grade sci-fi adventure. Gooey blobs, shapeshifters, sink holes, butts, and friendships. Kids who love a little laughter mixed in their books will love this. It is a fast paced easy read. Voracious readers can probably get through it in a day. Hard to put down. You just want to know more about the goo and the holes...and people starting to come around asking questions. I don’t want to giveaway spoilers, so I will leave it at that. Perfect for silly kids who love butts and goo!Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I read the final pages of Weird kid listening to live music. The guitarist was phenomenal - as was the book.Greg has a particular knack for polishing up all the bits I love about science fiction and packaging it into that middle-grade goldilocks zone. Perfect humor and pacing for its target audience while maintaining the heart and mind of a story a fan of any age could enjoy.Weird Kid has the best dog, 2 friends bonding over their love of comics, a kid bonding over music with his uncle and an entire town overrun with (view spoiler)[alien goo (hide spoiler)]. The book lives up to its adjective. It gets weird. Strike that. It starts weird, but it's easy to write off some of the initial weird happenings as the overactive imagination of the main character. As things get a sciency explanation the weirdness and the stakes escalate. Greg has fun with words, smushing them together like the dictionary of Dr. Moreau. Greg writes clearly about difficult topics like the loss of a parent. Greg writes equally clearly about butts. The chorus that Greg returns to is the power of love and acceptance.I'd say this is the perfect book to get your middle schooler hooked on science fiction, but it's the fourth of Greg's I'd say that about. Together they give a pretty good survey of what drew me to science fiction and keeps me reading it 30 years later.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Kids for the gifted book that I read in partnership with the library audio.Jake is just trying to fit in in middle school. Except that he's an alien that can't control his shape shifting tendencies. And his human parents are trying to keep his origin story under wraps. On his first day of school he manages to fly under the radar and makes a new friend in Agnes. Now Agnes is definitely not your typical middle school girl. She is smart, witty, and a little mysterious. Plus she is the motivation Jake needs to confront the craziness bubbling away under the surface.Overall this is a silly middle grade sci-fi adventure full of friendship, a search for personal identity and belonging; plus slime, goo, and aliens! If you love a good dose of humor with your read, you will find this a delight. Plus it's pretty fast paced.

First book in a LONG time that I could not possibly put down. Had so much fun wit this one, I read the whole thing over the course of a handful of hours!This would have been my entire jam as a kid. I love the "hidden identity" angle, the worrying about getting found out, the disastrous catastrophes that seem to follow Jake at every turn. Agnes was an absolute delight as a supporting character, and I love how believable her "super hero" obsession is, and how it gives credibility to her skills and strengths.All in all, just loved this book! The ending was the best of all worlds (no pun intended?) and it's nice to have something scary be confronted with love and understanding!!!!Recommend this one so so so so much!

Narrator: James Fouhey 5/5 WOW! What a great book and one I almost missed. This was a great story about a young man who isn't from here... in fact he is somewhat similar to superman. He came here by comet! Yes, this young man, Jake Wind is an alien. He has lived a normal life with his family thus far, until weird sink holes keep appearing across town and Jake thinks that he may be the cause of them.... Also, the town people are acting weird... like super weird.. like weirder than Jake weird! Find out what's going on in this small town.

I just finished this book and felt as though there were parts that could have been improved.One of the major things that I found the whole book was lacking was the beginning or an origin story if you would call it that. Though in truth I guess the whole book could be seen as an origin story.I felt as though it was a little bit too much like Superman and there was a little bit too much of stranger things as well mixed with it.I feel as though the weird sidekick or the weird friend however you want to look at it is a really good aspect and wish they would have built more on that. Part of me wants to say that the entire book is unoriginal and lacking something, but the major part of me just enjoys the book. I cannot tell you why I enjoy it truth be told, it is just one of those books that I enjoyed and it was really helpful to get me out of a reading slump.The only suggestion I would make is perhaps make the opening a little bit longer or leeway into the current opening. The other thing that kind of tossed me for a loop was the fact that it was an audiobook and they bleeped out some of the words oh, don't get me wrong I know what audience it is marketed towards, so I understand why this could be an appealing point. I have never seen a bleep done before so it was one of those situations that caught me off guard.Overall this book is worth the read and it is worth a listen if you have an audiobook version. I felt the things that it done well we're done extremely well and I felt the things that it did add we're done poorly

This book is narrated by Jake, a middle grader with much more going against him than the typical kid has trying to navigate friendship, school, and growing up. I loved the sarcastic humor, family, friendship, all-around weirdness, as well as the butt jokes. There is lots of action and the mystery is fun to piece together.

Humorous | Suspenseful | Witty (Appeal terms from NoveList) - Hilary

Another delightful offering from Greg Van Eekhout. So far every single one of his books has been an automatic win from both of my kids, currently ages 8 and 12. My 12 year old pressed this one into my hands and told me MOM YOU SHOULD READ THIS, so I did. It's got all the best elements from my favorite sci fi shows and comics boiled down into a super fun, super goofy, irresistible middle-grade romp. Bonus points: this definitely falls into the "books to give boys who think they don't like reading" category, too.

Got Puberty?I get a kick out of middle grade books that, intentionally or not, use shapeshifting and other weird, alien, or exotic body problems as a metaphor for puberty. But at some point that has to move to the background in order to allow room for strong characters and a compelling story adventure. This book, which opens with an alien kid who is disguised as a human, but who is losing control of his ability to keep his human shape, goes right up to the edge. At some point you think, O.K. I get it.Happily, after we drive home the uncontrolled body change problem, the tale switches into a slightly different gear, and we focus on the idea of being "weird" in a larger sense. Our hero bonds with a spunky, smart, and uniquely weird gal pal. It turns out that something funny is going on in town, and it may explain our alien hero's unintended shape shifting. The mystery/detectivating/adventure begins. We also shift from the whole body thing to a larger look at middle grade weirdness and why being weird may be the best of all worlds. The message, needless to say, is that everybody's a little weird in one way or another, and that's O.K..Once this book calms down and starts to tell a real story involving real and appealing characters it lightens up and flies right, with plenty of action, chuckles, twists, and suspense. There are nice touches involving the power of music, and there are a few surprisingly engaging secondary characters. (Burned out musician cousin Dale is a total Dude.) We don't break much new ground here, and the twists are signaled from miles away, but the whole package is solid enough, well written, sprinkled with some dark humor and a surprising number of deadpan laughs, and generally upbeat. I wasn't sure how this was going to wrap up, but the ending actually worked.So, even for middle grade alien hijinks this is a little loosey-goosey, but it's entertaining fun with two appealing kid characters, and earnest without being preachy; who's going to complain about that?(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

This is a super fun sci-fi adventure that strikes a great balance between adventure, aliens, cool parents, and butt jokes.Jake Wind is an alien. A blob of goo to be exact and he having a hard time starting school this year. His friends aren’t talking to him anymore, and he is struggling to pay attention in class because he keeps changing shapes without thinking about it. He also starts to hear this low-level hum around town and that makes it even harder to stay looking like himself - he changes into a seal in a mall bathroom!This book has a lot of strong points that I think kids will love. Jake is a great character, sure he is nervous and scared because he doesn’t understand what is happening to him, but he is also brave and works hard to save the town from invading “imblobster” aliens.Jake’s parents are another strong point for me. They have the perfect balance of being around, being super supportive, and parenting just enough to complicate Jake’s adventure without going overboard. As a parent, I love how they annoying embarrassing Jake just enough. Plus Jake’s dad is an endless source of butt jokes.Early in the story, Jake finds a new best friend Agnes. A new girl to town who has the lifelong goal of becoming a superhero like the comics she reads. She is athletic and does pushups while reading. She is smart and strong and a great role model, for girls. And an even better representation for boys who can see smart, strong, competent girls and hopefully take that into their view of what girls can be in real life. If you have a kid who wants a little sci-fi adventure. A kid who maybe looks at the neighbors and wonders if they are aliens then this is the book for you.