Mistakes Were Made (Timmy Failure, #1) in Mock Newbery 2026

Mar 10, 2013 The Styling Librarian rated it liked it

Shelves: early-chapter-books, kids-books, humor, mystery, graphic-novels

Ok, I'll admit it. I was concerned about my eyes. I thought they'd be strained after rolling them throughout this reading. I know this is a book that will be welcomed and treasured by many of my students. I personally became frustrated over and over again even though I enjoyed the book overall. Not so keen on reading books with characters calling one another idiot... I also found some of the language a little too high cognitively to accept in comparison to his academic performance. *I know he pr ...more

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Feb 22, 2015 Tamara rated it really liked it

Shelves: funny, books-read-in-2015

Pearls Before Swine is my favorite comic strip. This is important to disclose because chances are, otherwise, I would not have picked up Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, and I'm glad I did. I feel guilty because it sat in my TBR pile for many months before I gave it a chance. It's hard for me to get past my deep-seeded aversion to slapstick humor and cartoons--and that's what I expected, based solely on the cover. As a fan of Pearls Before Swine, I should've known better, but even as a child I Pearls Before Swine is my favorite comic strip. This is important to disclose because chances are, otherwise, I would not have picked up Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, and I'm glad I did. I feel guilty because it sat in my TBR pile for many months before I gave it a chance. It's hard for me to get past my deep-seeded aversion to slapstick humor and cartoons--and that's what I expected, based solely on the cover. As a fan of Pearls Before Swine, I should've known better, but even as a child I preferred "In the News" to most Saturday morning fare, so sometimes it's a challenge for me to choose books that appeal to certain members of my elementary school classroom. That's reason number two I gave Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made a chance. And Stephan Pastis rewarded my risk-taking. There's a lot here for adults as well as kids. But, kids first.

Timmy is wildly egocentric, but in a sweet, pathetic way. Once he achieves international acclaim as a detective, his primary goal is to provide his struggling single mom a better job. His charmingly delusional thinking may also extend to his "business partner," a 1,500 pound polar bear. There are clues, so I suspect Total is an imaginary cousin to Calvin's Hobbes. I wonder at what age young readers will suspect the same.

There are other indications that Timmy's thinking is wildly out-of-the-box. Before he makes an important note in his detective log about clues, Pastis subtly sets up the reader to predict what Timmy will write. Timmy's best friend, Rollo Tookus often voices the logical conclusion, which is never Timmy's conclusion. As an inveterate teacher, I naturally think of out how I can turn this into a lesson on drawing conclusions or on recognizing and appreciating an unreliable narrator. "Aha" moments are reading signposts that young readers are supposed to Notice and Note, then ask themselves "How might this change things?" That question becomes even more interesting when the character has reached the wrong conclusion!

Thinking about how I could make a lesson out of the vocabulary in Timmy Failure, I checked out the book's website and found a variety of resources, including vocabulary flash cards that could be used in a word study activities. Probably the lesson connections shouldn't have been surprising, since Timmy includes this helpful footnote: "I have written the narrative in such a way that terms like this can be contextually understood by the average reader." On the website, I also discovered that I wasn't the first to think of using the illustration on page 157 to teach the "don'ts" of collaboration.

Finally, cookies for the adults in the room. Rollo's perpetually shaking head, chapter titles (It Ain't Me, Gabe), and secondary characters like Flo the Librarian and Señor Burrito will keep adults LOLing right along with the kids. ...more

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Oct 05, 2013 Julie Williams rated it liked it

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is hugely popular and there are many other authors out there who are making similar books. I would place this book in that category. Not that there is anything wrong with it...find what the kids are reading and go with it.

In this book Timmy Failure is a budding detective with a pet polar bear named Total and a nemesis named Corinna Corinna. This book is about his escapades as he tries to solve crimes while working out of his office in his mom's closet and then, when they mo ...more

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Dec 08, 2014 The Reading Countess rated it it was amazing

Shelves: realistic-fiction, graphic-novel, recommended-to-me

Hilarious, laugh-out-loud quick read about Timmy and his misadventures. This bumbling boy couldn't find his way out of a paper bag, nevermind a clue. And that's what makes it hilarious. Reminiscent of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but only the first one or two when they were truly funny.

I loved his mom, and I loved his teacher (the cool one, not the old, burnt out one).

Thanks to one of my boy reader students, I love Timmy Failure.

Highly recommended. ...more

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Mar 25, 2020 Brenda Kahn added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-audio, wimp-appeal, reread, mothers-and-sons, polar-bears, 2020-reading, illustrated-novel, private-investigators

Reread this with my ears to refresh my memory as I'm hosting a giveaway of the movie tie-in edition on my blog soon. I wasn't quite as charmed by the narrator's performance as I was by the Timmy in my head when I read with my eyes. Quirky, cute and humorous. ...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Rachel Seigel rated it really liked it

This fun, Middle-Grade novel makes me think of Nate the Great, and what he might be like when he's Timmy's age. Timmy is snarky, funny, and ridiculuously fun to read, and fans of "Wimpy Kid" and "Big Nate" will have a new hero to root for. ...more

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