The Adventures of Ook and Gluk Kung-Fu Cavemen From the Future

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future: The Second Graphic Novel by George Beard and Harold Hutchins by Dav Pilkey. (Canada) - (USA)


Pages: 176 pages
Ages: 8+
Finished: Sept. 29, 2010
First Published: Aug 10, 2010
Publisher: The Blue Sky Press
Genre: Children's, graphic novel, humour
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

The book you hold in your hands contains many scientific errors and stuff.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Scholastic Canada.

Reason for Reading: My ds read aloud to me as his reader.

I received this book as an *extra* from Scholastic, along with one I had requested to review. I was not entirely impressed, I'm sorry to say. Neither I nor my children (up to 21 yo) have ever read a Dav Pilkey book and there has been a reason for that. I admit I do have certain la-di-da standards when it comes to what books I allow to pass through my children's hands and yes, you could call me a "book snob" in that sense. One of the things that has always irritated me to no end is when parents, teachers, librarians, etc. will say about a child who consistently reads books with little to no literary merit is "At least they're reading!". My response to that has always been: You don't hand a child who won't eat his vegetables a box of cookies and say "At least they're eating!". It's the same thing, to me.

But I have to admit, publicly, here and now, that I WAS WRONG about Dav Pilkey! At first glance through this book, I cringed at the purposeful spelling and grammar errors. I thought the story was silly (stupid, even) but then told myself the book is for 10yo boys not *ahem*yo mothers; the boys would love it. Wait a minute, *I* have a 10yo boy! Then I began to actually read the text and realized my 10 yo son would be able to read a good portion of this book. My son is autistic with several learning disabilities and at this point is reading easy readers. Here was a book, a thick book, with chapters, that was aimed at his age group that might actually excite him about reading. So I gave him the book, and while he did need a lot of help, he *could* read much of the book and LOVED the story. Every morning when we started our routine, he would say "I can't wait to read my book!" You don't know what music that was to this readaholic mum's ears! I usually give him a break from reading from his reader on Fridays, as he reads a story from an easy reader Bible that day but he was so upset to find "Ook and Gluk" missing that first Friday that he stormed off to get the book and happily read twice on Fridays from then on, without even thinking it was a chore!

My son absolutely loved this book! Thought it was hilarious, loved the "flip-o-rama" pages and it is probably his favourite book *ever* right now. He was thrilled to see the page that said another Ook and Gluk book would be coming soon. Myself, I have to admit, it was funny and silly. I did laugh. The spelling and grammar errors were irksome but I got used to it and realize they made the book easier to read. My son was able to read some of the big words because they were misspelled, which gave him reading confidence. I don't intend to feed him a daily diet of Dav Pilkey but Dav is now welcome in our home and I intend to have him read the first graphic novel about the Diaper Baby in the not too distant future. Then I will finally go have a look at those darn Captain Underpants books! and check out the reading level. Thanks to Ook and Gluk, a mum learned a lesson and a boy found a book he was passionate to read.