The Big One-Oh (review)

Charley comes home one day to a birthday card from his estranged dad that asks, "What are you going to do for your big day?" Even though his dad has gotten both the day and his age wrong, those ten words set off a chain of events that could spell Charley's destiny or his doom. He decides that he has to do something to commemorate leaving the single digits, but he quickly realizes that he has no idea of how to throw a party and no friends to invite to one. Cinematic slapstick hilarity reigns when he throws a House of Horrors birthday party based on his favorite comic-book series, which threatens to go horribly wrong until his occasional friend, the weird guy who lives next door, saves the day with a few very convincing special effects. Charley is a winning nerd, and the friends that he gathers to him gain from being fifth-grade stereotypes—their characters are universal enough for kids everywhere to recognize them as people they know. The humor resides in the broad action of the events rather than snappy dialogue or narration, making this a straightforward read with lots of exercise for the reader's inner eye as s/he brings the comical scenes to imagined life. Many a birthday party will no doubt be patterned after Charley's wildly successful bash, but few (thank goodness for parents, neighbors, police, and other emergency workers) will pack the same punch.