The McGilliguddy Book of Personal Records

Colleen Sydor
Red Deer Press (2010)
ISBN 9780889954342
Reviewed by Madeline McElroy (age 9.5) for Reader Views (3/11)

Young Lee McGilliguddy tries to set his own records like dribbling a basketball for twelve hours straight; it is especially hard when his friend Rhonda is always bugging him. But he soon learns, the hard way that dribbling for that long causes him to pass out. Rhonda hates when these things happen, she has to drag him all the way back to his house. Rhonda sat down beside Lee keeping him company. He really wished he could yell at her and say, “Get outta my room ya stalker!” But since he could barely move, he just let her stay. But then, Lee really wished he could yell at her because Rhonda turned on his computer and searched through his emails. He just had to keep calm.

A couple weeks later, Rhonda goes over to Lee’s house to ask him if he wanted to go bike riding; he ran to the garage, pulled out his bike, grabbed his inhaler (because he has asthma), grabbed the dog leash, went to the back yard to get his dog Santiago, and started off, his bike following her. Lee stayed perfectly quiet. Rhonda thought he had gone crazy, so she started going faster. By the time they got to the fields, Rhonda stopped so Lee could take a breath. He was breathing so hard, it sounded like a swarm of bees! He reached for his inhaler and took a big breath. Rhonda spots a nearby well and she and Lee drop their bikes to walk over to the well. Rhonda runs over and looks in, saying “Great, no water.” Then she thought of a fun game to play. She said, “Hey, how about we see who can make the rope break first by dropping rocks into the bucket?” Lee responds, “Sure, but you’re going down.”

They both rush off finding rocks and boulders and pebbles. Rhonda spots a big boulder; she brings it all the way back to the well, stands on top of the well, and throws the boulder in. Still no budge. She responds to that by saying “Oh. C’mon! Really!” Then she slams her foot into the well, bad idea. The rocks where she had hit fell, and so did she. “Ow!” That's what Lee heard from the well. Lee yells down the well, “Rhonda! Rhonda! Rhonda, are you okay!?!?” She responds, “My name is Ron and yeah, I’m fine. Ow! But I think I broke my leg.” Then he hears the rope budge, he rushes toward the bucket and grabs it with all his might so that it won’t fall onto Rhonda. He yells down, “Rhonda, stay calm. Don’t startle me. The rope broke, now I am hanging onto this bucket like it’s my life!” She yells up, “My name is Ron ya idiot! and I won't.” The rest of this book will blow your mind.

“The McGilliguddy Book of Personal Records” was really fun to read, even though there weren’t any pictures. But the good thing about this book is that it is easy to make the images of it in your mind and make the characters look like anything you want to. This book is good for people who like action and comedy. It also teaches you some valuable lessons and sayings.

Make comment on weblog

FTC Disclosure