Have you ever wondered what moths are thinking, always running into hot lightbulbs at night?  Did you know that the fear of the number 13 has a name?  Have you ever really wanted a fantastic (and super silly) recipe for Squash?  Find these answers and a whole lot more Unsolicited Advice inside ‘A Whole Nother Story’!  Silliness is the order of the day in this absolutely hilarious book!  I was laughing before the story even started!  The humor is dry and sly—it sometimes took me totally by surprise and I think I found myself laughing out loud more in this book than any other book I’ve ever read!  All of the characters are funny and interesting.  Mr. Cheeseman, his children (who will remain nameless since their names do change in the course of the story), their dog Pinky (who becomes psychic as a byproduct of his habit of drinking out of the toilet), and Steve (the sock puppet), are all on the run from some ‘bad guys’ who want Mr. Cheeseman’s invention: A Time Machine.  The bad guys are hilarious, though!  There are the guys with number names (Mr. 5, Mr. 29, Mr. 88 and Mr. 207) who have a lot of conversations about the difference between crushing, smashing, smooshing, etc.  There is the international superspy with his assistant who is a minkey (monkey)—and his monkey’s pet goldfish that rides in the back seat of the car.  And we can’t forget the guys with the letter names: Agents Aitch Dee and El Kyoo.  Ha!  There are so many other fun characters we meet along the way—especially Captain Jibby and his traveling circus sideshow, who aren’t bad guys…or are they?  If you want a book that will keep you giggling, this book will not disappoint you!  Lastly, there are just two more things you need to know:  First, there is a cliffhanger at the end.  Second, there are probably two Bengal Tigers loose somewhere in Utah…or maybe it was Vermont…  Either way, you might want to be on the lookout!

Content Analysis:

I knew this was going to be a great book when a character calls another character ‘stupid’, and he retorts with “Stupid is a bad word!”  Great fun!  The only instance of profanity was the word some pirates used to describe the circumstances of when a storm came up and lightning struck their ship 12 times. 

There is some violence.  A character is shot in the leg.  Someone is poisoned and dies.  Some characters are attacked by a Tibetan Yak (they’re not hurt, though).  There is a big fight at the end—a character is stabbed by a swiss army knife, another is hit in the head with a rock, yet another is hit by a truck, and one more is hit by a pole and his leg is fractured.  None of them die.  There is one character that ‘dies’, but it’s not actually alive in the first place. 

I read this out loud to my kids and we really enjoyed reading it together.  They’re now begging me to read part two to them!  They get most of the humor and enjoy the ‘action’, but I can tell you they’re missing a whole lot of those one liners!  So, really, I can recommend this for all ages as both adults and kids will find all of it fun and engaging.  Even my daughter who is very anti ‘action’ loved this book!

Mature Subject Matter:

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Alcohol / Drug Use:

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