Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Book Review: How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy


How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy by Crystal Allen

13-year-old Lamar Washington likes to pull pranks, has asthma, and is always overshadowed by his basketball superstar older brother. Lamar does have one thing going for him-bowling. He is known as "The King of Strikers" down at his small town's bowling alley. Suddenly, things seem to start looking up for Lamar-pretty Mekeda likes him even though she used to be the victim of his pranks, professional bowler Bubba Sanders is coming to visit his town, and Lamar thinks he has come up with the perfect plan to make tons of money to purchase an expensive professional bowling ball! It doesn't take long for everything that was going so well in Lamar's life to start going wrong...
This is a funny, touching story that reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books of all time- The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Some other read-alikes include:

The Schwa Was Here by Neil Schusterman
Donovan's Word Jar by Monalisa DeGross
The Big Bike Race by Lucy Jane Bledsoe
The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron
The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis
Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff by Walter Dean Myers
Edgar Allen by John Neufeld
Read for Me, Mama by Vashanti Rahaman
Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World by Mildred Pitts Walter

-Reviewed by Jen

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