The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies

Weenies #4

by David Lubar

A girl doesn't have a date for the school dance—until her dad makes one for her in his lab. "Lily—meet Stitchy." A family enjoys a nice Thanksgiving dinner—until they are interrupted by a torrent of turkeys out for revenge. A princess meets a pea-brained suitor. And the battle of two red hot pepper weenies ends in flames.

Critically-acclaimed author and master of the macabre David Lubar returns from a journey into the darkest depths of his brain with thirty-five more warped and creepy tales. And in the tradition of the three previous Weenie collections—In the Land of the Lawn Weenies, Invasion of the Road Weenies, and The Curse of the Campfire Weenies—he reveals the inspiration behind each story at the end of the book. Don't be a weenie. Read these stories...if you dare!

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Short Stories, Middle Grade, Humor, Fiction, Childrens

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2009

About the author

David Lubar created a sensation with his debut novel, Hidden Talents, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Thousands of kids and educators across the country have voted Hidden Talents onto over twenty state lists. David is also the author of True Talents, the sequel to Hidden Talents; Flip, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror selection; several short story collections: In the Land of the Lawn Weenies, Invasion of the Road Weenies, The Curse of the Campfire Weenies, The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies, and Attack of the Vampire Weenies; and the Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series. Lubar grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, and he has also lived in New Brunswick, Edison and Piscataway, NJ, and Sacramento, CA. Besides writing, he has also worked as a video game programmer and designer. He now lives in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidl...

Reviews

[Austin Golter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think about a battle between two kids in school challenging each other who can eat the hottest pepper. This book by David Lubar is a collection of hilarious and entertaining short stories. The short stories range from a doll going to a dance to a student who gets bullied and explodes. My favorite story was a boy wrote to his favorite author but the author just keeps taking the boy's ideas. I wanted to read this book because I knew it was funny from reading the description on the back. This book reminds me of my life because it is very random and surprising. You should read this book because if you want a little excitement and laughter then this book is for you. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a sense of humor. This book isn't for someone who takes life too serious.

[Trent Spieker · Rating 5 out of 5]

i recommend this book to anyone who is into twisted stories. This book has a different goofy, funny, twisted, and loony stories every chapter. One of my favorite chapters was when two kids went to an amusement park and stole a meatball sandwich. Then, on one of the rides, the kid that stole it got spun around so much that he turned into a meatballs and that what they used on the sandwich. This book is very goofy and i would read more of them.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird, bizarre, and fun, but honestly not as good as I remember it being as a kid. The book is entertaining, but the stories are not quite as enthralling as they were in 6th grade. Even after reading the author's motivation for writing each story, I'm surprised these were targeted at children (though he targeted correctly, since I loved them when I was 11).

Arguably worth a 60-minute read-through if you're ever bored!

[Jock Zollinger]

This book includes weird, creepy, and scary short stories. I would recommend this book to those who like scary stories. I would rate this a 4 because most of the stories had unexpected endings.

[Beth Matsoukis · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, my 11 year old recommended this book. It’s a delightfully creepy collection of short stories. The teens and tweens get themselves trapped in many situations that could go the horror show route, but the author keeps it clean and delivers the creepy punchline making you think about what just happened in the story.

[Dominic · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the stories were funny.

[Brenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

In David Lubar's book The Battle of the Hot Pepper Weenies, he had written a bunch of short stories about pepper battles, giant turkeys, vegetarians, and of course...weenies! David Lubar is a book writer, video game designer, and a short story writer. David Lubar loves to write fun books or short stories about fun and random things, he likes to have a fun time writing the book instead of being boring, he wants children to love and want to read his books!
There is a short story inside of The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies called The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies, that is what this review is about. This story has to do with two boys named Dallas Mitchell from Texas and Alonso Viejez from Mexico. Sense both boys are from the hotter more harsher parts of North America they have about the same kind of taste. One day Dallas had brought peppers to school for his lunch they were actually called Jalapeño Slices, Alonso was right behind him and asked if he could have one, Dallas gave him one and that is when the battle had begun. Everyday each boy would bring a even hotter pepper than the day before and every day they had eaten each others pepper. One day each of them had brought a pepper like normal, but the one Alonso had boughten was the hottest in the world. After they took one bite of each others peppers they had ran so fast to the bathroom, and that was the day they learned not to bring peppers to school again.
David Lubar is a great author for ALL ages. I would defiantly recommend this book to anybody that likes fun stories about fun things!

[Mason S · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the book everybody has a date to the dance with her. Until her dad made her a robotic date and she thought he was not good enough for her but it was better than nothing. So when they were at the dance and he stared to fall apart she went and said no so she wanted to leave but when they left band I was cold outside he gave her a his jacket when she was cold. So if you like funny and weird books this is the perfect book for you.

[Garrett Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies is a book will many short stories in it. Almost all of them end with a twist and they're all pretty funny. They range from bees that never die and green insects that make you smarter, all the way to giant turkeys and a Frankenstein boyfriend. Overall this was a enjoyable book to read, but some of the stories/twists are similar.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is for anyone that loves weird twisted tales. Any fans of the Twilight zone, this is for you.
It was good, but seemed like some of the stories were remakes of other short stories.
I almost fainted when someone ripped a page out of a library book. No no no, the horror! Will someone please think of the children.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories in this book scared me so much as a child. I specifically remember one about an umbrella (eating someone?). I remember many a night crouched by my nightlight reading these stories. My first 'horror' novel which started an addiction. What can I say? I guess I've always had a taste for the twisted.

[Daniel M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about some kids batteling to see ho has the hottest pepers until they find out that there is a pepper that

[Nathaniel Urban · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it was 10/10.

[Christopher Litsinger · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be fair, River said she liked this book.
I did not.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is probably is not like the title. I'm pretty sure that the series could've been a lot more popular if it had some other title, but it adds to the surprise, because what on earth could a story about pepper weenies be about? This story is creepy. Or stories. This book is a collection of 35 unrelated stories, and all of which have their own unique charm. As much as "The Rattley Old Bumbershoot" and "The Department Store" will scare you, you'll laugh at the absurdity of "Lets Give a Big Hand for Gerald" and "Yakety-Yak" and also will be satisfied at "Into the Wild Blue Yonder" and "The Sound of Screams"

"Into the Wild Blue Yonder" is my personal favorite. Buzzy just is annoying throughout the entire story, with his rhyming, sneaking into amusement park rides, and overall ruining Ryan's day. The ending is so well done that I won't spoil it.

There is 1, and only 1, complaint, and it's really not that big of a deal. In the previously mentioned story "Let's Give a Big Hand for Gerald", Gerald hand keeps growing bigger until it's so large he can't fit through doors. I feel like this is a copy of how in Captain Underpants (Can't remember which one, it's been a long time since I read the book) Harold gets his hand blown up to humongous sizes. The names even rhyme!

But that was a nit-pick, and there still are 34 other incredible, flawless stories. If the story "Wish Away" scared me so much I wouldn't even touch the book until I happened to find the book in a moving box a couple months ago, you know it's good.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and creepy stories. You definitely need to know your child before you share this so that you aren't being awakened in the middle of the night by a child with nightmares. Now not all the stories are really scary, but there is some off the wall stuff that could wind up a child with a very active imagination.
I, of course, was very attracted to this book because of the cover. Who wouldn't pick up a book that has a gun-toting, sombrero-wearing weiner on its cover with the sub title ...other warped and creepy tales. This sounds like fun. And fun it was -- I am always up for a good laugh and this gave me quite a few chuckles. My favorite story was "Rattled Nerves". I did not see that twist coming at the end and it was so perfect. The "Battle of the the red hot pepper weenies" was fun. Last year we went to a Hot Pepper Festival near us. They had a junior and senior level hot pepper eating contest. It was amazing. The contest continued way up into the super high hot peppers and very few people dropped out. I don't know how they did it, but they stuck it out. I can't even imagine what the next day was like for them as the ending of this story alludes to that.
I really appreciated that the author shares some of the ways that he comes up with his ideas at the end of the book. The story teller in your family might really enjoy those.

[Ben Salberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The weenies series by David Lubar is a series of about ten books containing short stories that are utterly outrageous. In the Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies ,and all the other books in this series, there are stories about time travel, bullies, and even the dentist. These stories are usually told by a single narrator as if they are scary stories told around the campfire. I enjoyed every second of reading these books. Each short story was funny and suspenseful which kept me intrigued. I think these books are good to recommend to young readers who like scary stories, but also have a hard time reading through chapter books.Even though the stories are crazy, the challenges the characters face are just blown up versions of the struggles of our everyday lives.

[S · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish reading this book, but the little I read made me realize this book may be more appropriate for older grades but not for younger.

Example, an excerpt from one of the short stories about an umbrella that takes a boy's life:

"...Woodrow struggled to free his arms. A dozen short jabs ringed his body as something bit into his flesh. Woodrow let out a muffled scream..." And basically that's the end of that story.

Based off of the other reviews I read, the rest of the other stories may not necessarily be lighter.

[Daryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Weenies books were a core element of my childhood. I gobbled these stories up for breakfast, and I loved these books because they were ACTUALLY SCARY. People actually got murdered in this series, and the stakes of the scary stories felt real. And of course, all of these terrifying tales were combined with stories about kids challenging each other with spicy peppers. We love a series that does it all.

Also read this series aloud to my cousin and it was a great bonding activity. I thoroughly converted her to being a Weenies enjoyer.

[Erika Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is filled with 36 different stories. They were really funny and some were a little scary. It was a really good read though. If someone is looking for more of a change of pace, this would be a great book to read. My favorite story is Braces. It is about this girl who gets braces but when she goes to bed she feels something moving in her mouth. She realizes it's the braces! These stories are always a good read.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember that I used to love these short stories as a kid. They are the perfect amount of creepy without being too scary for a younger child (well a younger child that likes scary things). These short stories, now as an adult, don't have quite the creepiness factor as they did for me when I was young, but the critiques of society, hidden to my child-eyes, still stands strong. This book is basically the "Black Mirror" of the early 2000's kids.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great, but some of the stories were kinda boring to me. towards the end of the book, the stories got a bit better. A lot of the stories were quite violent like " King of the hill" were this huge hill comes alive and it eats this kid and spits him out. I would recommend this book to people who like scary and funny books.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have hunted for this book for years because I only remembered two stories from it and nothing else, not the title or author or anything.... But it still holds up and I get why it freaked me out when I was younger~

[Mary Stenvall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book - for all ages! Gentle tales with a moral written in clever little tales. Just right for bedtime stories! Pretty good nap time tales for those of us supposed to be mature! This is one that should be on every bookshelf.

[Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

funny

[Aiden Conley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was funny and weird. I personally liked it. That's all.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection of fun and creepy stories. There are even a couple of library stories in the mix.

[Chloe]

It was a great book!

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize it was small stories

[River Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is very interesting. Funny in some parts. Crazy fiction.