Books : Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Erupts!: The First Experiment (From the Highly Scientific Notebooks of Phineas L. Macguire)
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Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9781416947349
ISBN number: 1416947345
Label: Aladdin
Manufacturer: Aladdin
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 176
Printing Date: May 08, 2007
Publishing house: Aladdin
Age index: Ages 9-12
Sale Popularity Level: 8178
Studio: Aladdin
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Product Description:
Here's what you need to know about Phineas L. MacGuire, boy-scientistextraordinaire, aka Mac:
1. He's allergic to purple, telephone calls, and girls, and can proveit.
2. He's probably the world's expert on mold, including which has thehighest stink potential.
3. He does not have a best friend. He does, however, have an un-best friend, who he does not -- repeat, not -- want to upgrade to best friend status.
But disaster strikes when his teacher pairs Mac and his un-best friend together for the upcoming science fair. Worse, this un-best friend wants the project to be on dinosaurs, which is so third grade. Worse still, it seems as though everyone else in his class finds the un-best friend as unlikeable as Mac does. But, being a boy-scientist, once Mac notices this, he just might have to do some investigating....
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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What a fun read, sure to please even those who are reluctant readers. It has everything a young person could want -- exploding volcanoes, a haunted closet and boogers! Another plus -- it is a very fast read. I laughed out loud as I read the antics of Mac and his friends. I can't wait to read it to my fourth graders. I know they will enjoy it as much as I did. I'm ordering the subsequent two books in the series.
Rated by buyers 
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I just read this aloud to my 6yo and 9yo sons (and they read it to themselves after we were done) and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Good humor, nothing too gruff, and it incorporated some great discusion about how people should run with their talents regardless of gender stereotypes (girls can be terrific at science, and boys can be artists despite what Ben's dad has told him). It was a quick and enjoyable read, it celebrates a love of science, and it also provides some fun suggestions for experiments. We're eager to read the sequel.
Rated by buyers -
Children's librarians must find books to add to their collections from a wide variety of different sources. They read professional serials like Horn Book and School Library Journal. They receive Advanced Readers Copies and read clever blogs that always discuss new titles (cough). Far less professional but no less important, however, is the regular trip to the large corporate bookstore with the wide children's book selection. Recently I was on such a "research" trip and was attempting to find some kids books to read in the store's cafe. I plucked up the usual suspects with their shiny covers and titles when my eye was caught by an unassuming little title. First off, I'd like to point out that "Phineas L. MacGuire Erupts!", does not have the most striking cover in the world. It's nice, but something about the colour scheme and the position of the font causes the eye to slip right over it to the flashier books inevitably stacked around it. However, I couldn't help but notice that this was an early chapter book. To my mind, early chapter books are THE most difficult books to write. So I snatched it up without any particularly high hopes and later flipped through for a read. What I discovered was a book so funny, so succinct, and so intelligent that I'm shocked that professional review sources haven't been bandying it about with louder fanfare. This is a great great GREAT book. A keeper and a clever beastie. If you know of any child at all that is just now getting into reading chapter books on their own, THIS is the book to buy them. Now. Forthwith. Without hesitation.
This has not turned out to be a good year for Phineas L. MacGuire, otherwise known as Mac. For one thing, his best friend Marcus has just moved out of town, and the timing couldn't be worse. Mac and Marcus always planned to enter the fourth grade science fair together (that's the very first time you're allowed to enter) and now that plan is gone. Worse still, there's a new kid in class who is ALSO named Mac and he's a serious jerk. He tells everyone right from the start that his own school was much better than this one. He trips the shortest kid in class right off the bat. And worst of all, he seems like he really really wants to be friends with our hero. Our Mac is edgy about this, especially when the two are paired together for the science fair. But after visiting with his new partner and seeing what a nice and incredibly artistic guy he really is, the two need to come up with some new plans. #1: Win the science fair. #2: Make the class like Mac #2 (who's real name is Ben). Both goals are difficult, but when you're dealing with a hero as scientific and smart as Mac, you know you're in safe hands.
To be blunt, when I very first started reading this story, it sounded mighty familiar. Mac likes to point out that he is allergic to fifteen things including anything purple, all girls, and moist towelettes in foil packs. His mother only acknowledges his allergies towards peanuts and cat hair, of course. All this felt very similar to Sue Stauffacher's character Donuthead in the book of the self-same title. This was my very first reaction towards Mac. I mean, both he and Donuthead have impatient mothers and don't care for girls at all. But that's pretty much where the similarities stop. Mac is his own man with his own obsessions and rules. He's a scientist after all, and if the course of his investigations means that he's overly enthused by mold or the patterns blood makes when it splatters from his nose during a nosebleed, well so be it.
It's actually the subtlety of Dowell's writing that really struck me with this book. There are a million things inferred here or left unsaid that a reader can figure out on their own without being told. For example, when we learn that Mac's fourth grade teacher Mrs. Tuttle used to be a very first grade teacher, some of her goofier tendencies begin to make a lot more sense. The writing in and of itself is superb, of course. We're dealing with an author who is used to older children's fiction like, "Dovey Coe" or "Chicken Boy". But sometimes authors of full-length chapter books have a hard time adapting their style to younger readers. Not Dowell. Somehow she manages to balance things that kids would find funny (like opening an old can of beans and stinking up your house or dealing with a fourth grader who still thinks that dinosaurs are cool) with incredibly spot on bits of adult humor. The fact that Mac's mother is continually buying healthy food, which is always stuffed to the back of the fridge (where it inevitably goes through a long protracted death) sounded a little too spot on. Dowell apparently lives with two young sons at this time. I suspect I may know from whence some of the inspiration for this title sprouted.
Now there are two distinct reasons why you should buy this book: It's humour and it's science. Humour first. Consider the ... Read More
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