Potterwookiee

Gr 4–6—Robert Columbo Burnside had been using his closet as a science lab. When his mom demands that he clean up his room, he throws his books and other items into the closet. Everything mixes together with the lab chemicals and out comes Potterwookiee: part Chewbacca and part Harry Potter. Robert calls him Hairy. Laugh-out-loud episodes ensue after Hairy falls into a trance because he has been attacked by the town's plague of owls. When Robert's friend Jack tells others about Hairy, the boy's friends come over to check him out. Most of them think he's a stuffed animal since he isn't moving, and they want to put him in the "flinger," a seesaw contraption that's best known for flinging ice-cream sandwiches. Meanwhile, Robert is being picked on by Wilt, the town bully, who steals his bicycle. He messes with everyone by pretending to fix their hair but gives them "Wilt-whirls" instead: hairdos so bad that they are impossible to comb out, even causing one kid to shave his hair into a reverse Mohawk. When Hairy comes out of his trance, he helps Robert and his friends get even with Wilt in a funny scene that takes place in the graveyard. The text is hysterical by itself, but acts as the straight man in relation to the one-two punch of the childlike drawings and captions that appear on almost every page. Get multiple copies of this book: it will fly off the shelves.Diane McCabe, John Muir Elementary, Santa Monica, CA