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The Curse of Cuddles McGee
While poking around their neighborhood, mystery-solving, swamp monster-fighting middle-graders Arlie and Ty fi nd a buried coffee can fi lled with the bones of a hamster and the handwritten curse (on glittery unicorn notepaper) from his home-schooled owner,
"Here lies Cuddles McGee. A curse upon those who disturb his grave."
The fact that the i in "lies" is topped with a heart doesn't make them any less scared, especially when the obese, angry, and undead Cuddles comes back to life and starts trashing the town.
Once again, it's up to Arlie, Ty, and Mr. Boots -- the fashionably dressed Chihuahua, to save the town from destruction, reanimated dead hamster-style.
"Here lies Cuddles McGee. A curse upon those who disturb his grave."
The fact that the i in "lies" is topped with a heart doesn't make them any less scared, especially when the obese, angry, and undead Cuddles comes back to life and starts trashing the town.
Once again, it's up to Arlie, Ty, and Mr. Boots -- the fashionably dressed Chihuahua, to save the town from destruction, reanimated dead hamster-style.
- GenresZombies
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 23, 2008
26 people want to read
About the author
Emily Ecton
17 books61 followersEmily Ecton is a former writer and producer for Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!, the NPR news quiz. She has also been a playwright, a chinchilla wrangler, an ice cream scooper and a costume character. After years of living in Chicago, she now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with her dog, Binky.
Also writes under the name Emily Fairlie
Also writes under the name Emily Fairlie
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 8, 2010
Emily Ecton, The Curse of Cuddles McGee (Aladdin, 2008)
Ecton's first Arlie and Ty book, Boots and Pieces, wowed me. While kidlit has grown up on a number of fronts over the past few years, Boots and Pieces was the first book I'd read of the lot that felt like it had also matured. Now comes the second book in the series, The Curse of Cuddles McGee, and you know what? It's even better. Ecton makes this stuff look effortless in ways that other “adult” kidlit authors (think Paul Ruditis, if even hearing his name doesn't drive you insane, or the everpresent Stephenie Meyer) can only dream about achieving, and does it all in the midst of screwball plots that could have been lifted straight from Stanley Kramer movies, had Stanley Kramer ever chosen to traffic in neurotic chihuahuas and undead hamsters. (The world is a worse place for him never deciding to.)
Plot: Arlie and Ty are facing a crisis of unheralded proportions: Mr. Boots, the normally well-dressed chihuahua, has decided he likes not only being naked, but being aggressively naked. Arlie's mom is on the verge of a breakdown, so mom and dad head off for a week of intensive therapy, leaving Arlie and older sister Tina in the care of the harridan down the street, Mrs. Knoble. While avoiding her, Arlie, Ty, and Mr. Boots get caught in a construction site in the rain. Boots gets ahold of an old can that Ty uncovers while kicking dirt clods, and when Arlie opens the can, she finds the bones of a hamster, along with a curse on whomever opens the can (on flowered stationery decorated with unicorns). The three of them nervously laugh it off, but that very night, they're presented with hard evidence that said hamster, Cuddles McGee, is in fact back from the grave. Worse, he seems to have developed a crush on Arlie. Arlie and Ty, with the help of their crime-fighting pooch, must figure out how to lay the poor animal to rest while simultaneously getting Mr. Boots trained for the America's Most Talented Pets competition and figuring out whether it's really Cuddles who's trashing the string of downtown businesses owned by Mrs. Knoble's equally harridanic husband.
Of all the good things I could say about this book (just imagine I said them, or go back and read my Boots and Pieces review from last year), the one that I kept focusing on while reading the book is the use of age-appropriate language. There's slang to be found here, but it's not the horribly outdated crap you hear in a Ruditis novel or the “was that ever popular with teens?” stuff you find in about a quarter of the kidlit novels you'll read in any given year. It's more effective when Ecton slings in a sentence or two that reminds you these are teens just after they've spent three pages deducing some clue or another and sounding uncomfortably adult. It all comes together in a wonderful mesh of fast-paced, readable language that keeps the pages turning. Great for middle-grade mystery fans, and adults who like breezy mysteries (and exhibitionist canines) will get a kick out of it as well. ****
Ecton's first Arlie and Ty book, Boots and Pieces, wowed me. While kidlit has grown up on a number of fronts over the past few years, Boots and Pieces was the first book I'd read of the lot that felt like it had also matured. Now comes the second book in the series, The Curse of Cuddles McGee, and you know what? It's even better. Ecton makes this stuff look effortless in ways that other “adult” kidlit authors (think Paul Ruditis, if even hearing his name doesn't drive you insane, or the everpresent Stephenie Meyer) can only dream about achieving, and does it all in the midst of screwball plots that could have been lifted straight from Stanley Kramer movies, had Stanley Kramer ever chosen to traffic in neurotic chihuahuas and undead hamsters. (The world is a worse place for him never deciding to.)
Plot: Arlie and Ty are facing a crisis of unheralded proportions: Mr. Boots, the normally well-dressed chihuahua, has decided he likes not only being naked, but being aggressively naked. Arlie's mom is on the verge of a breakdown, so mom and dad head off for a week of intensive therapy, leaving Arlie and older sister Tina in the care of the harridan down the street, Mrs. Knoble. While avoiding her, Arlie, Ty, and Mr. Boots get caught in a construction site in the rain. Boots gets ahold of an old can that Ty uncovers while kicking dirt clods, and when Arlie opens the can, she finds the bones of a hamster, along with a curse on whomever opens the can (on flowered stationery decorated with unicorns). The three of them nervously laugh it off, but that very night, they're presented with hard evidence that said hamster, Cuddles McGee, is in fact back from the grave. Worse, he seems to have developed a crush on Arlie. Arlie and Ty, with the help of their crime-fighting pooch, must figure out how to lay the poor animal to rest while simultaneously getting Mr. Boots trained for the America's Most Talented Pets competition and figuring out whether it's really Cuddles who's trashing the string of downtown businesses owned by Mrs. Knoble's equally harridanic husband.
Of all the good things I could say about this book (just imagine I said them, or go back and read my Boots and Pieces review from last year), the one that I kept focusing on while reading the book is the use of age-appropriate language. There's slang to be found here, but it's not the horribly outdated crap you hear in a Ruditis novel or the “was that ever popular with teens?” stuff you find in about a quarter of the kidlit novels you'll read in any given year. It's more effective when Ecton slings in a sentence or two that reminds you these are teens just after they've spent three pages deducing some clue or another and sounding uncomfortably adult. It all comes together in a wonderful mesh of fast-paced, readable language that keeps the pages turning. Great for middle-grade mystery fans, and adults who like breezy mysteries (and exhibitionist canines) will get a kick out of it as well. ****
September 25, 2008
So funny! I loved it.
Read
May 17, 2009okay
August 23, 2009
Loved Mr. Boots. I didn't understand why Cuddles' having an inter-species crush on Arlie meant he had to destroy anywhere she visited, but that's okay. It was a weird and sarcastic book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews