Lenny Cyrus, School Virus: A Funny Science Adventure About Shrinking Inside the Human Body for Kids

by Joe Schreiber, Matt Smith (Illustrator)

It seemed so logical at first. Fourteen-year-old Lenny Cyrus had loved Zooey Andrews since third grade. All the boy genius needed to do to win her heart, surely, was shrink down to the size of an amoeba, ooze into a gelatin capsule, and have his friend Harlan slip it (him!) into Zooey’s Diet Coke. Told in three voices, this fantastical middle grade novel takes Lenny deep into Zooey’s loud, splashing innards, where a talking astrovirus named Astro has a bad attitude about white blood cells (“self-righteous pus-bags”) and aromatic hormones disco dance. The question is, will Lenny and Zooey survive his crazy experiment in nanotechnology?

Genres: Science Fiction, Adventure, Humor, Middle Grade, Romance, Childrens, Young Adult

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Joe Schreiber was born in Michigan but spent his formative years in Alaska, Wyoming and northern California. Until recently, he has never lived in the same address for longer than a year. Before settling in Hershey he lived in New York, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland (OR), and Philadelphia. Becoming a parent forced him to consider a career with more reliable income, and he got a job as an MRI tech at Hershey Medical Center. Joe is married and has two children. He is the author of Chasing The Dead, Eat The Dark, and his newest tale of terror; No Doors, No Windows, which went on sale the same day as STAR WARS: DEATH TROOPERS. You can find him on the web at his blog ScaryParent.Blogspot.Com and on Suvudu.Com, where he is an occasional horror columnist.

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well. That was...interesting.

[Dylan · Rating 1 out of 5]

hated it

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lenny Cyrus is a certified genius, but when it comes to girls, he's clueless. His latest attempt to convince Zooey Andrews to look his way is to shrink himself down to nano-size, infiltrate her body, and literally change her mind for her. His relucant friend Harlan, not a genius but socially miles ahead of Lenny, thinks it's a really bad idea, but since Lenny is determined, he goes along with it. Meanwhile, Zooey's mind is fully occupied with the Christmas play she's written and scored, which will have its first performance the day that Lenny tries his experiment. She's strong-armed Harlan into being her mutated Santa Claus. Things are going badly for Zooey, though--she can't understand why she feels so up and down. Lenny is learning a lot about the human body, and learning that he's set himself a tougher task than he could have guessed. His parents are looking for him, too, and Harlan just tries to keep the peace and make sure Zooey doesn't spin out of control, but he's just one boy--and there's more going on than any of them know about. Will Lenny's experiment end up in success? Or will he manage to kill both himself and Zooey?

This was just a fun romp, like Magic Schoolbus on steroids--reminded me of the old Danny Dunn books. It's a perfect middle school premise, and if you suspend your disbelief as far as it will go, you'll have a lot of fun. The characters are fairly standard, with standard parent problems, but that doesn't mean they're not sympathetic. Many kids, especially nerds, have to cope with being invisible at school to everyone but the bullies, and with parents who don't try to understand them. The anatomical information was way over my head, of course, and I did get tired of all the long words--I suspect kids will just start skipping over them early on. I liked the way the author divvied up the narration between the three characters, and thought the plot was well structured, if a bit predictable (it's a plot-based, action-filled story, so it's what you expect). Lots of wonderful details--I loved the frame of the play, which just added another level of ridiculousness. Overall, ridiculous, but fun. Not sure if the illustrations added anything, though--made it feel a bit young.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy genius likes girl. How does he get girl to notice him? Boy shrinks himself to microscopic size, gets ingested by girl and heads to her brain to change her mind about him. That’s the gist of the plot of this story. But of course, it isn’t that simple. Lenny, the boy genius, hasn’t a clue about interacting with Zooey, his crush since third grade. Running interference for him is Harlan, his best friend, confidant and partner in crime. Zooey is consumed with producing her own original play for the school’s Christmas program. Throw into this mélange the obligatory middle school bullies, add in Lenny’s equally genius yet clueless parents and you have a mildly amusing, but fast-paced, action/love/suspense story. Lenny’s plan to shrink himself and travel to Zooey's brain coincides with the debut of her play. But as they say, the best laid plans…. His success in getting into Zooey's gray matter is hampered by obstacles he had not planned for: unfriendly cells, bacteria and a purposely planned virus that leaves Zooey acting strangely and deathly ill. Lenny and Harlan, working in concert, try desperately to save her. Ultimately, Lenny learns several life lessons and his brainiac parents show some human qualities after all. The story is told alternately from each of the main characters’ point of view in short chapters. The subplots are weak and don’t really work for me. The few illustrations scattered throughout are mainly of the viruses and cells Lenny meets on his inside-body experience. The characters are uneven, especially Lenny’s parents; even Lenny seems to be two different people. The plot obviously strains believability, and the intended audience may be turned off by all the technical jargon of the workings of the human body. It might be useful as an introduction to sci-fi for tweens.

[Safiyah · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seemed so logical at first. Fourteen-year-old Lenny Cyrus had loved Zooey Andrews since third grade. All the boy genius needed to do to win her heart, surely, was shrink down to the size of an amoeba, ooze into a gelatin capsule, and have his friend Harlan slip it (him!) into Zooey’s Diet Coke. Told in three voices, this fantastical middle grade novel takes Lenny deep into Zooey’s loud, splashing innards, where a talking astrovirus named Astro has a bad attitude about white blood cells (“self-righteous pus-bags”) and aromatic hormones disco dance. The question is, will Lenny and Zooey survive his crazy experiment in nanotechnology?

This book was so great! I couldn't stop reading. I have to say that Harlan is my favorite character. Aria is the worst. She is evil!! Evil!! And Zooey is super determined. She wouldn't stop her play when she was dying! And Lenny is a bit of jerk and although he's a genius, he's dumb. I loved how it made it seem like Zooey's body was another world. Like Osmosis Jones. That was a great movie. You should watch it and read this book.

You can read this review and others at my blog. There is also other stuff about books, poems, and random stuff. The link is here: http://fiyahscorner.blogspot.com/

[Shanshad Whelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those circumstances where as a librarian, I almost want a little section labelled 'tween' books. (Not really, because think of all the cataloging headaches!) If there was such a section, this book would fall firmly into it. There are a few too many references to hormones and romance along with some advanced knowledge of biology to feel comfortable with this given out to any MG reader. Especially when Lenny takes a side trip to Zooey's ovaries. That said, the overall tone and style are a little too young to be of interest to most YA readers. I think this will be a hit most strongly with the 11-13 crowd. Reluctant readers may find this a bit of a chore with all the science terms and theories thrown around, but an advanced reader who likes something a bit out there but isn't ready for the maturity of much of YA fiction may find this fits the bill.

[BenR · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Book "Lenny Cyrus School Virus" by Joe Schreiber was about a boy who shrunk himself down and went into a girls body to change her mind. The main characters in the book were Lenny his best friend and the girl he likes. While inside the girls body, Lenny ran into problems such as a Caffeine molecule and viruses. My favorite character was Lenny because he was the main character and most of the story was based around him. I did not relate to any of the characters in the story. Ive never felt like i needed to shrink myself down to change someones mind. I enjoyed the book because it was full of adventures. My favorite part was when Lenny shrank himself down. My least favorite part was at the end. I would recommend this book to my friends. Someone who likes science fiction would like this book

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny and lighthearted look at just what some people would do for love. Although Lenny shrinking himself down and invading his "true loves" body might seem shocking to some, I appreciated the humor and the scientific terms that were included in this book. It might help a student become more interested in math and science and realize that simply being there as a friend for someone you truly care about is WAY more important than shrinking yourself down and trying to convince them to love you.

[Lisa Bricker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked it up with severe misgivings. I really really liked it! Loved the multiple-narrator strategy, which allowed for so much more exposition without "I'm going to explain this now" feel. I liked the way the kids behaved, though I had a harder time with the adults' choices--they seemed a little forced to fit the circumstances. But it's a kids' book and the kids, I thought, were spot on.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science genius shrinks himself and secretly injects himself into the girl he has had a crush on for 5 years, thinking to travel to her brain in hopes of getting her to like him. Of course, his plan goes wrong and when he accidentally triggers an infection he has to figure out how to save before her body shuts down and/or he becomes normal size.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book " Lenny Cyrus, School Virus" is about a boy named Lenny who is very smart and finds out a way to shrink himself to go into this girl body who he likes to tell her how he feels about her. Lenny couldnt do it on his own so he asked his friend to tell whats going on.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I saw Joe Schreiber wrote it. It was quite amusing, and I think I may have actually learned some things.

[Abbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read my review at Gator Book Chomp.

[Michael Prince · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok

It is a good book for elementary to early middle school students, but the scientific vocabulary is very challenging. 4stars

[Jk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Main Character a little dense for being genius stereotyped too much
Thought the conversations with cells was not a good use of story, like the authors other books better

[Jacob Golen · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first it is your typical middle school romance, until the science jumps in. With nanotechnology and funny jokes, I really like this book