Melonhead and the We-Fix-It Company

August 1, 2013
Melonhead, always brimming with good intentions, once again successfully enchants. In this, his fifth adventure, Melonhead and his best friend, Sam, still cannot keep themselves out of trouble. Melonhead's aunt gives them a challenge: If they can go 30 days without getting into a "situation," she will reward them by taking them to an amusement park. Hoping to meet the challenge, Melonhead finds himself trading in the term "situation" for "snafu." (Aunt Traci didn't say anything about snafus, after all.) After a snafu involving a silver teapot, the boys must find a way to earn money. They are hilariously ill-equipped to run their We-Fix-It Company: Sneakers become glued to fingers, and hedge trimming turns into an exercise in abstract design, among other mishaps. But triumph awaits. Utilizing everything they've learned, the boys convert their mistakes into a brilliant creation, and Melonhead's final act of kindness will endear him to readers. Breezy sketches accompany the buoyant repartee--"You're wrong, King Kong"--and overall silliness that includes copper-cleaning supersonic vomit. In this lively and light entertainment for middle graders, Melonhead and his friends inhabit a world without sarcasm or texting, where inventiveness and camaraderie reign supreme. (Fiction. 8-12)

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February 1, 2014

Gr 3-6-Adam Melon, aka Melonhead, and his best friend, Sam, inadvertently discover a great way to remove tarnish off silver while creating "destructionator" drinks for each other. Unfortunately, in the process, Adam's mom catches them, slips on the pizza sauce they left all over the floor, and dents her antique teapot heirloom. Now Adam and Sam must find a way to earn enough money to repair it. Trying their hand at being fix-it guys, the duo take on odd jobs, to varying degrees of success. Will Adam and Sam earn enough money to fix mom's teapot? Kelly has done it again; the characters are funny, endearing, and capture the essence of boyhood extremely well. A few unforeseen twists and turns will keep readers on their toes. A must-have for any library collection.-Kira Moody, Whitmore Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014
In his fifth book, Melonhead and best friend Sam damage a family heirloom and decide to raise repair funds by doing odd jobs. Undeterred by their lack of knowledge and experience, the buoyant troublemakers unleash their assistance on their neighbors and somehow manage to salvage everything in the end. Johnson's spot art reinforces the humor, and, while the plot lacks cohesion, this is an entertaining pick for reluctant readers.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)