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Odd, Weird & Little (2014)

by Patrick Jennings(Favorite Author)

3.54 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1606843745 (ISBN13: 9781606843741)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

EgmontUSA

review 1: Woodrow has never been able to stand up to the boys who pick on him. He's also not sure if he wants to be friends with someone who is even "weirder" than him - he calculates that it will up his "picked on factor" by x6.However, his principles won't let him stand by when those boys begin to torment Toulouse. He finds the courage to stand up to them, and tries to deflect attention by allowing himself to be laughed at rather than letting Toulouse be embarrassed in front of the class. He is laughed at, but he finds out that some other classmates find his hobbies interesting, and not as strange as he assumed they would.I think this book is more about the benefits of being true to yourself (even if your peers think you are strange) than bullying. Toulouse never seems to be bothe... morered by the snide comments, and the book ends without much resolution to the harassment from classmates other than Woodrow realizing that it's easier to stand up to or ignore the mean kids in class with a true friend by his side.
review 2: I wish that the cover didn't give away the entire "surprise" ending that the "new kid" at school is actually an owl. Since the cover both illustrates an owl and emphasizes the "OWL" letters of the title, I couldn't get that imagery out of my head, and consequently, whenever Toulouse did anything bird-like, it was obvious to me. I wish the cover showed Toulouse as he's described: in a three piece suit, gloves, and hat at all times thus hiding some of his owl-like features. Then perhaps I could have bought into the confusion of Woodrow as he assumed Toulouse was a child like him, and enjoyed his shock when he finally came to the correct conclusion.But even overlooking that, I wasn't sure how I felt about the story as a whole. Woodrow had been bullied his whole life and had no friends until Toulouse came along, who was even weirder and thus became the object of the bullies' attention instead. Teachers are, of course, never around to witness the bullying, and times Woodrow stands up to them he gets in trouble instead. When he and Toulouse finally get the bullies caught, all they get is 5 days without recess and they threaten to "get them" when the punishment is over. I just felt the bullies never really got any punishment at all, nor did Toulouse and Woodrow get out of their unfortunate social situation. But at least they have each other as best friends? less

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