Blog Tour ~ Review of "The Misadventures of Phillip Isaac Penn"

Description from Goodreads: Pip, whose real name is Phillip Isaac Penn, feels that the world is against him as he struggles to deal with angry parents, a bossy older sister, a frazzled teacher, and memorable characters such as Bully Bart, Cheater Chaz, Know-It-All Nell, Liar Lizzy, Stealer Steffan, Conman Cody, and Tattle-Tale Tess. Every day of the week brings another challenge that Pip handles in his own endearing way. Yet, no matter how hard he tries, he realizes that it’s just not easy being a kid


My Thoughts:
My first thought was "finally, a little boy version of Junie B."  A more accurate description would be a cross between Junie B. and Dennis the Menace.  I have three sons (they all love Junie B).  It's great to have a boy main character that they can relate to.

Pip is such a cute kid who tries so hard to be good, but no matter what he does, he seems to find himself in trouble.  He doesn't mean to cause problems, they just seem to come to him.  After all, it makes perfect sense that if you get glue all over your mother's hair dryer you soak it in the bathtub to get the glue off.  Right????  At least he didn't have it plugged in..... see, he was thinking!  He actually gets blamed for things that are not his fault, but the grown ups don't give him a break.

At the end of each chapter Pip thinks about his day and the lessons that he learned.  I feel that this is a great skill for children to learn.  Rather than getting upset about the injustice of being in trouble, he learns from it.  This is a great book to read to your children and discuss what we can learn from Pip and his Misadventures.

There was one thing that bugged me.  Pip's teacher used him as a negative example in the classroom.  She made a point in a couple of instances of pointing him out to the class and the mistakes that he made.  Of course, this lead to vindication in some aspects for him, but still.... not a great example of a professional  teacher.

Overall, I say to read this book to your kids or let them read it on their own.  You won't go wrong with Pip.  I would like to see more books of Pip in the future.

I received this book to review from NetGalley.  Thank you Cedar Fort for approving my request and inviting me to be a part of this blog tour. Thanks Donna L. Peterson for writing a book that will appeal to the little boys and that the girls will like too.