Reviews
The
18th Emergency-Review
The 18th emergency is a book about a boy named Benjie [a.k.a Mouse] who has a habit that gets him in trouble. His habit is labelling everything and anything, for example writing Air Vent pointing to a hole in his shoe. One day he decides to write Marv Hammerman pointing to Neanderthal man on a poster of evolution. Marv Hammerman is the renowned school bully and is even compared to Hitler. He has two main companions, Tony Lionni and the boy in the black sweatshirt.
Mouse’s
parents are two very busy people. His Mom sells cosmetics door to door and
is forever going to cosmetic parties. His Dad drives a truck and is nearly
never home. His best friend Ezzie who tries to make Mouse feel better and
is a very dramatic person who is drawn to tragic figures. He also has a
habit of making up solutions to emergencies like 1.Quicksand 2.Lion attack
3.Raging Bull etc.
Mouse’s fear of Hammerman fighting him fills the book with
anticipation and excitement for the ending. The story is full of images
that get stuck in your mind and really get your imagination running. Betsy
Byars strings all this together to make a brilliant book that you get
hooked on from the beginning as you journey with Benjie through a
brilliantly funny story of what happens to you when you do something truly
idiotic.
SC Room 5
The 18th Emergency-Review
The main character in the story is Benjie Fawley or as everyone calls him Mouse. They call him Mouse because he’s always running away to hide. Mouse lives in a small apartment. His mum sells cosmetics and his dad drives a truck. Both of his parents are very busy and he’s an only child so nobody is there to help him except for his best friend Ezzie. Ezzie has quite a large family. It doesn’t say how many people are in his family but it does say that there is a lot. Ezzie loves a tragic figure such as Mouse. He always tries to make Mouse feel better by making up stories.
Marv Hammerman is the biggest bully in school. He hangs around with two guys called Tony Lionni and Peachie who is the boy in the black sweatshirt. Hammerman go held back in school so not only is he bigger than everyone else but he’s older too. In the book it said that the students say, “There’s only one Hammerman just like there was only one Hitler.”
Throughout the whole book Betsy Byars, the author, paints brilliant images in your head. For example near the start of the book Mouse imagines that he is going around with a big red target on his stomach saying ‘HIT HERE’ in the centre. Another image she paints in your mind is when Mouse imagines Ezzie’s pink and earnest face just poking out a coiled boa constrictor.
Mouse has a habit of labelling things. One of which is “DOOR.” Mouse put a label saying “DOOR” on the wall beside the door with an arrow pointing towards the door. Another label is “AIR VENT”. For this label Mouse had a hole in his shoe so he wrote “AIR VENT” on his shoe with an arrow pointing to the hole in his shoe.
Ezzie has a habit of making up emergencies and then ways to deal with them. One of which was: Emergency 8-“Attack by killer whale-when being attacked by a killer whale swim away rapidly. If it catches you take short breaths and try to make him cough you up and then continue swimming rapidly!” Another one was: Emergency 6-“Tarantula bite-when a tarantula bites you, do a lively Italian folk dance.
All in all I think it was a great and easy to read book.
jd room 5