The Fantastic Family Whipple

The Fantastic Family Whipple #1

by Matthew Ward

For every child who’s ever dreamed of being in the Guinness Book of World Records comes the story of eleven-year-old Arthur Whipple and his fantastic family of world record breakers . . .

- Most Crème Brulée Eaten in One Minute
- Highest Number of Matching Outfits Worn by a Stuffed Toy and Its Owner
- Youngest Person to Summit the Third-Highest Mountain in the World

These are just three of the 49,521 records won by Arthur’s twelve brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, unlike his siblings, Arthur hasn’t broken a single, solitary world record! But when the Whipples suffer a spate of catastrophes and a curious amount of attention from a pair of irregularly sized and unusually menacing clowns, Arthur might be the only one who can save his family from losing their collective crown . . . or worse.

Genres: Middle Grade, Mystery, Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Childrens, Juvenile

400 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2013

About the author

Matthew Ward is the author of the middle-grade novels THE FANTASTIC FAMILY WHIPPLE and WAR OF THE WORLD RECORDS. He lives in San Diego, CA, where he can’t help but look at every hawk he drives past, much to the amusement/terror of his wife and three sons. UNFLAPPABLE is his first picture book.

Reviews

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Today, we open with a rant. Now, this isn't really about this book in particular or anything the author did. This rant is about publishers and how they like to sneak series into our lives. Listen, I don't mind series, though I am getting a bit tired of everything being part of a series, but what I cannot abide by is thinking a book is a standalone and it turning out to be the first book in a series. Nothing in the blurb or on Goodreads indicates that this is part of a series, but, as the last chapter makes clear, it is. HARRUMPH to this I say. I'm left feeling annoyed with the book, as though it did something to me when this is a failure of the publisher in marketing it properly as what it is: the opening to a series. Despite this, The Fantastic Family Whipple actually was a cute middle grade novel, but do be warned that it is yet another series.

Young readers are going to love The Fantastic Family Whipple, I have little doubt. World records are so compelling to children for reasons I don't quite fathom now that I'm an adult. Even so, I remember marveling over the Guinness Book of World Records just like everyone else did back in elementary school. In library's I've worked out, the Guinness Book has always been one of the most popular check outs. Kids love this stuff, and they will love this book.

Even better for young readers, the records being set in The Fantastic Family Whipple are all ridiculous, which will no doubt have the young readers chortling. For example, one of the attempted records involves a hamster-manned rocket flight and another involves hopping up and down on one leg. Even better, the Whipples participate in an Unsafe Sports competition, which I am sure will captivate young imaginations.

The cover really captures the light-hearted humor, silliness, and bombastic nature of The Fantastic Family Whipple. In addition to the hijinks, there's also a mystery for our utterly un-illustrious young hero to solve. Arthur Whipple is the only unremarkable member of the Whipple family, but it's his turn to step up and be important. Also, thanks to their new neighbors, the Goldwins, Arthur's family may be joining him in his losing streak.

I did like The Fantastic Family Whipple, but this is one of those middle grade novels that I think loses a lot of its charm for an adult audience. The jokes and the situations are perfect humor for children, but, while entertaining, didn't drive me to the heights of glee that I think they would a child. Also, I would have liked to see a bit more progress made on the mystery plot line in this book. The ending felt arbitrary and sudden.

If you know younger readers who love humor and can't stop reading the Guinness Book of World Records, they will love The Fantastic Family Whipple. As an adult, the humor wasn't quite my speed, so I probably will not be returning for the sequel.

[Effie · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5

[Glorrry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Çocuk kitabı olarak çok güzel ve akıcı ama benim için bazı eksikleri var

[Laney Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur Whipple is a let-down to his entire family. He is one of the many children of the Whipple family, who is known to have broken the most world records as a family than any other in the world.


Why, oh why does every book have to be turned into a series? Especially when it could be a stand-alone book...


Publishers, you've done it yet again...you've put another series in my life that honestly (no offense to any publisher, author, etc.) could really be a stand alone book if the plot had been concluded. It was like half a book.

Overall...a pretty good book. I was just very frustrated in the fact that Arthur's parents (especially his father) treated him like he was a failure to the entire family and that he didn't deserve to be there just because he hadn't broken a world record. His father even showed him a failure quotient chart to remind his son of HOW MUCH of a failure he was.

The book also portrays violent images (for being an elementary read) such as parents throwing knives at their children in the sake of winning a title as well as one of the siblings getting "accidentally" shot in the back by an arrow.

It also voices the theme that winning is more important than family or being compassionate to others.

A few things were not explained beforehand, such as Arthur's participation in the Unsafe Sports Showdown and the Rocket Stick event. I thought this kid was a failure, but he's competing in a world-record event! Just a bit confusing...


A decent book overall, but the plot was not concluded and has obviously led to a sequel...

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really surprised that this book ended where it did -- it almost felt like the author realized that he'd have to write a second book to finish this story arc. Which is a bit annoying-- I wanted this story to conclude and for the inevitable second book to be its own story. Still, there were parts when I actually laughed out loud (mostly relating to the protagonist Arthur's arch nemesis, Prince Bobo the chimpanzee.

But, the world records in the appendix kind of makes up for all shortcomings.

[Münevver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ya öncelikle kitabın iç kapağı ve dış kapağı bir sanat eseri. Al günlerce kitabı izle yani. (Yapıyorum şuan.)

Kitap, rekortmen bir ailenin bir tane bile rekoru bulunmayan Arthur isimli oğulları ile ilgili. Arthur'un kendisini ailenin bir parçası gibi hissetmek için yaptıkları ve başarısızlıklarının başarısızlık oranının azalmasına sevinmesi falan üzücü şeylerdi ama kitabın geneli çok eğlenceli ve gizemliydi. "Acaba bu sefer ne yapacaksın Arthur?" diye diye okudum kitabı. Okuyan çok kişi görmedim açıkcası ama okunmasını isterdim, ben eğlenerek okudum. Umarım ikinci kitabını da çevirirler (hiç sanmıyorum), olacakları bilmek isterim.

[Courtney Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

MUST READ! The clever and endearing voice and fantastical characters will take you on the most memorable adventure! Nothing short of EXTRAORDINARY!

[hhertzof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off clever but the premise had worn thin by the end.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arthur Whipple doesn't fit in his family. Everyone else has the same birthday and breaks world records every day. Arthur was born a day early and has failed at every record he has attempted to break. Even the people who work for the Whipples are record holders. Arthur tries everything to make his family see and appreciate him but they never do. Then a mysterious dwarf and giant ruin the big birthday bash and a family from Mr. Whipple's past comes back and beats the Whipples at everything. The family cook is blamed for all their troubles, but Arthur knows he isn't the real culprit. He has to find out who is behind everything and convince the others of the truth.

Ugh! I almost didn't get through this one. It had so much going for it, but really didn't live up to its potential. For one thing it was WAY too long. 400 pages is a lot of story especially for a book as convoluted as this one. The world record stuff was interesting at first, but quickly became a crutch for the story. It was way too unbelievable and clunky a device. The last thing that really bothered me was the fact that there wasn't really any conclusion or moral or lesson to be learned from this book. We don't know who ruined the birthday party; we don't know who really hired the dwarf and giant; we don't know why the cook was blamed; we don't know what is up with the Goldwins; and Arthur's family never appreciates him. I really wanted more from this book and didn't get it.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot but there were a few things that bothered me. First, it ended so abruptly. It was very suspenseful so it was a huge let down that it just stopped. I would wait until the next one comes out before reading this one. The other thing was it had some violence and violent ideas. Like mothers throwing knives at their children, hoping they are good enough not to hit them. Or an arrow hitting one of the brothers in the back. Also I didn't like the theme that winning is everything and is more important than helping others. I was hoping that would be changed around but wasn't in this book. I am looking forward to the next one!

[Josh Newhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book... it's absurd... it's cute... it's funny... but...

it's half a book... rising action, drama, twists... but no resolution... not the only book I've read that committed this sin... but at 350 plus pages... there was no need...

there's dangling plot lines and there's this...

torn between 3 and 5 stars... low 4 stars due to this issue... hope book 2 resolves things better!

[Jill CD · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't finish it. I got past page 100 of the 400 pages and was bored. It was too predictable. I thought the concept was interesting and could be very appealing to readers but for me it dragged.

[meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

three and a half. fun premise and clever writing but the action felt a little to dragged out even before i found out it was going to have a sequel. should have been a stand alone i think.

[Elizabeth (NC) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book--definitely more for the younger set. Isabel enjoyed it a lot. We'll probably listen to the second one at some point.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a compendium stuffed purposelessly with everything the author thought of that might get a laugh out of a young person or spark some interest. The pieces of it didn't go together. There were segments humorous family stuff, mafia stuff, ghost story stuff, and scary circus stuffchoppily jumbled together to no apparent point. And there was no real theme. Maybe that not all good things one can do can be described as records that go into Guinness. In fact I'm not in fact convinced there's going to be a plot line as this series progresses. The character of the cook was good. But the book is extremely lengthy, and at the end, not one thing in it is resolved. Instead of an ending the reader is offered a piece of cake and a promise that there will be further installments to come. That for me broke the trust between author and reader. It posed a simple choice: Either I could decide not to care about anything that happened in this book or any of its characters or read through yet another one with no faith that it will bring things to resolution either. If the publisher thought this would entice people to purchase a second installment, they need a reality check. To be fair to the author, I think he's probably a good writer. Some of this is imaginative although the purpose of most of it does seem to only be to surprise. The things that occur don't seem to come out a plot. They're just a series of remarkable and odd things that the author hopes are funny pasted together to try to somehow approximate a plot. But I suspect a lot of it was not what the author naturally wrote. Reading the acknowledgements made me suspect there was an original book here that got edited out of existence and replaced with a ton of phony for profit nonsense.

[Hannah B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t agree with other reviewers who say that kids would love this. It is such a depressing book. The main character who is a little boy is seen as a failure to his entire family and to all of the world around him! (Lethe than 2 characters). Arthur has not one success in the entire book! Every thing he touches goes haywire and whenever he tries to help others it ends up being a flop. I assume perhaps in later novels in the series he’ll succeed at something and maybe then his family will not be ashamed of him-but I won’t be getting that far. This book could have been so good, but it’s just downright sad. The only good part was the narrator of the audio book-he has a British accent and it’s really great.

[Betsy Quillen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just didn't like this one. I picked it up at a local book fair with the idea of passing it on to my son, but I think I will end up donating it. It was cute enough to finish, but I just really don't like stories where all of the adults are horrible and a child is left to feel like he is the only one who knows what is right and is the only one who can do something or save someone. This one had a lot of the adults who were in positions of authority (parents, police officers, record officials, etc) just be really mean and clueless, to the point of regularly neglecting and hurting the young boy main character. Just wasn't my type of story, and I don't think I'll bother with the sequel. I'll stick to ones like The Mysterious Benedict Society and Mr. Lemoncello.

[Katrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of our summer read-alouds. Arthur was born into a family of world record holders and he can’t break a record of his own. He then tries to figure out who is out to sabotage the family and has quite a few mishaps along the way. I felt the book dragged and in no way expected it to be the first in a series. This book could have very easily been a stand alone book and wrapped up everything by the end. The kids liked the book and now want the 2nd in the series to get everything resolved.

[Whale Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

คอนเซปต์น่าสนใจ
ภาษาการเขียนเฉย ๆ

หนังสือจบเหมือนยังมีต่อภาค 2

ตัวร้ายมีแรงจูงใจแปลก ๆ

เนื้อเรื่องสนุกและน่าสนใจจาก Theme ของมันเอง
ที่เป็นครอบครัวผู้ทำลายสถิติอันดับหนึ่ง
มีคนเก่ง ๆ เกิดมาเพียบ
Surreal อย่างแท้จริง

"อาเธอร์รู้มาตลอดว่าความล้มเหลวของตนคือสถิติที่ใครๆก็รู้
แต่เขาเคยหวังว่าความฝันย่อมเป็นสมบัติส่วนตัว"

และสิ่งเดียวที่เขาคิดว่าจะทำได้เองความฝันของเขากลับถูกคนอื่นเดาได้หมดก่อนที่เขาจะฝันถึงความฝันเหล่านั้นเองเสียอีก

[LilT1227 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it’s a really good message about not giving up and trying your best. It’s smart to base it off of world record breaking because many people fail before they succeed. Arthur also makes a strange partner who helps him on the case of 2 mysterious clowns. That is why I like this book.

[Adarsh Magesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think t this book was very interesting. It was funny to read about all of Arthur's failed records. I think it was really cool how the whole book was based off of a real record breaking family. I also liked the fact that there were lots of record breaking people, items, places, and more in the book. The plot was also really interesting because it was not just action, but really funny!

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good book. It was funny and engrossing. It has plot twists, character changes, and the characters make you feel their emotions. You should not read this book if you are scared of danger. This is a very good book. You should read it.

[Ayşenur Nazlı · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bir çocuk kitabından istediğim verimi alamadım. Daha kısa olabilecek, uzatılmış bir kurgu. Anlatımı akıcı olsa da olay örgüsü sıkıcı. Kitabın sonu tatmin etmiyor ve devamını da pek merak etmedim. Güzel bir konu olabilirdi ama harcanmış ne yazık ki.

[Lee Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun and humorous story. I wish the mystery had been solved though! I loved all the quirky records and the crazy characters.

[Sheela · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book would translate well to the big screen.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book with a SUPERB cliffhanger at the end!! I am dying to read the next!

[Tyler Standish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so good!

[CR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book.

Terrific mystery filled to the brim with action and suspense. I would recommend it to anyone who likes record breaking.

[Liam McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book!