Book Review: Attack of the Growling Eyeballs: Who Shrunk Daniel Funk? Book 1
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know this book is trying to be edgy for its
young target crowd, but it's mostly about attitude. Daniel does
lie to his mother and teacher. When Daniel shrinks, he and his
tiny brother engage in some potentially dangerous acts, like
catapulting themselves with rubber bands -- but kids couldn't
emulate any of it.
Families can talk about how they would adapt big-size items into cool toys if they shrank, like Daniel and Pablo do when they turn a drinking straw into a water slide or swim in the dog's water bowl.
Common Sense Media Review
The book's target audience is clear from this exchange:
Pablo says, "Art rhymes with fart," and Daniel decides that is
"the funniest thing anyone had ever said." If readers can think
of more humorous things, well, they probably won't appreciate
that his grandmother Lola changed her name from Gertrude
Gezundheit or that Great Granny Nanny rides a mint-green
scooter with bright orange flames matching her tattoos. These
are caricatures, not characters, but it's unlikely kids will
care; they'll be too busy saying "Ooh, yuck" when a shrunken
Daniel falls into the toilet or wakes up with his nose against
Stinky Sock Mountain.
Daniel's negative portrayal of his sisters as superficial and bossy may alienate girls, but they're clearly not the target audience anyway. And in a story about a kid who shrinks by eating goulash and enlarges by sneezing, it might be absurd to expect realism, but one does wonder how toe-sized kids manage to slip through a drinking straw-turned-water slide.
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