Alvin, oh Alvin

When I first met Alvin I loved him.  But now, well, that third book...every little thing that used to endear me to Alvin now aggravates me.  He is whiny and his behavior is pretty much ridiculous.  Alvin Ho:  allergic to the Great Wall, the Forbidden Palace and Other Tourist Attractions will probably be the last in the series that I will read.  What I did really like were things I learned about Chinese culture and history.  But you know....if Look was so off base about Native American culture, how can anything she writes about anything be trusted?

More of Alvin...

Alvin has a new member of the family!  I do hope that this is not a Jump the Shark situation, because that would make me very sad!  Alvin Ho:  allergic to babies, burglars and other bumps in the night is the fifth book and if you take a look on goodreads, there are a lot of folks who didn't like this one at all.  Some folks thought Alvin and the gang came across as too naive or too stupid to be believed.  I don't know.  I enjoyed the book.  I have to say I gave it a four of five, though.  I mean that is still really good...but I will have to see how the sixth one goes. 

Life and Death in Children's Books

This addition to the Alvin Ho series was really, really well done.  In Alvin Ho:  allergic to dead bodies, funerals and other fatal circumstances, Alvin faces something that is really scary for a lot of people:  death.  Alvin's gunggung's best friend dies and Alvin tells gunggung that he will go to the funeral with him. This spins Alvin into a grand state of worry  He is worried that his gunggung will die and, well, things get pretty crazy.
I am still feeling icky about number three, but this book was right on, a five of five.  So I would say, skip three and roll right on to this one.

Flea

In this world where money is king, it does surprise me that Flea doesn't have her own series.  Flea is a big part of Alvin's problems in this third installment:  Alvin Ho:  Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects and Other Man-Made Catastrophes.
The thing that made me pause was the playing of "Indians." I was pretty surprised and I had to give it one star for that.
I did some looking around for thoughts on this.
And this is what I found.
I am not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  But this is pretty awful.
Had this been Henry Huggins, published in 1950, it could begin a conversation about how far we have come and why we don't put up with that today.  But man...this just makes so sense at all.
As you will see, I do still love Alvin.  I just really can't recommend this book in the series.

Camping...

I love the IDEA of camping.  Now that I have lost 43.8 lbs., yet still have about 210.3 to go, I am starting to think about all of the out-doorsey kinds of things that I can do again.  Camping is not one of them. It's the whole indoor plumbing thing.  I, like Alvin Ho, am Allergic to Camping, Hiking and Other Natural Disasters. The second Alvin Ho book is just a great at the first.  In this one, there is some serious father-son time, plus Anibelly (great name). Brother and sister go camping with Dad.  I love Alvin's relationship with his father and mother.

Alvin Ho! Love this kid!

I am embarrassed to admit that even though Alvin Ho been around since 2008 with this first book, Alvin Ho:  Allergic to Girls, School and Other Scary Things, I just read this now!  What a wonderful, wonderful series.  Alvin Ho is incredible.  He is loving and kind and normal!  Which means he does get into a lot of jams.  But man...this is a great book.  Alvin is a second grader, but I think that kids all the way up through fourth grade would love him.  Even kids who are 42, like me.  The thing about Alvin is that he is afraid, and therefore claims to be allergic to pretty much everything.  He goes to a psychotherapist to help with his fears.  I love it that he thinks that a psychotherapist is a psycho that helps you with your problems.  He is a smart kid!  He's an Asian-American so there a lot of neat things to learn about the culture.  What a great, great series.  As you will see, I am already on the fourth one now!