Reviews

The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles

karibaumann's review against another edition

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This took me a while to read because it is not my favorite type of book. However, there are a lot of great things about it. It reminds me a bit of The Phantom Tollbooth, and I liked the characters. It was particularly great that the boys were having an adventure and experiences that were fun and not focused solely on race. It’s a very appealing book and I hope it finds an audience!

antoinettepowb's review against another edition

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5.0

A fast paced, fun, and humorous adventure! I enjoyed Otto and Sheed's relationship and appreciated how different they were, but still very close. I love the idea of freezing an entire town and having to figure out how to start everything up again. The personification of all the phrases of time we use. This is a great introduction to Logan County and the Legendary Alston Boys Adventures. A must have for middle grade and upper elementary classrooms!

asey's review

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I just couldn’t get into this story. Then one of the boys asked if he could call some terrestrial beings a certain name because “his grandma said he should always call someone what they wanted and nothing else.”

the_fabric_of_words's review against another edition

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5.0

I loved the Legendary Alston Boys series!

Otto and Sheed live in Logan County, a place where right off the bat, you learn almost anything can happen. No, seriously, in a fantasy sense -- anything can happen. And it does.

Like most kids their age (they're cousins, not brothers, but they live together with their Grandma) they wish the last day of summer would never end.

Sheed -- so he can find a new adventure, one more way to save the county, yet again, and earn another medal from the town mayor to tie the competing girl-duo and twins, the Epic Ellisons.

Otto -- just so he doesn't have to start school the next day.

Then a strange man calling himself Mr. Flux appears and offers a camera to get a "shot" of the county, so they can "capture" the last last-day-of-summer "forever." They have no idea what they're doing when they click the button and out comes the photo. It's an old Polaroid-type camera, except…when they look closely, it isn't. It's magic.

tcbueti's review against another edition

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5.0

Clever and touching. Fry, a town in “weird” Logan County. The Legendary Alston Boys have as already earned several keys to Fry (at first I thought I’d missed the first book in the series, the way they kept referring to these previous adventures)

“I wish this day could last forever“ cue the troublemaking guy with the freezing-time camera.

jessalynn_librarian's review against another edition

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4.0

A delightful, madcap last-day-of-summer adventure with a surprising amount of heart. I loved that Logan County is just a place where strange things happen, loved the relationship between the cousins, and the balance between humor and depth.

kbhenrickson's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5 stars.

awelsh's review

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2.0

I wish I had liked this one more. The premise is great - wanting just a little more summer, Otto and Sheed Alston don’t hesitate to take a picture of their town when a strange man with a camera shows up, and they literally freeze time. Now they have to fix it, so the residents can be unfrozen and life can resume.

Maybe there were too many side characters? I loved the relationship between the boys and felt each of them was a well drawn character, but there was a giant cast of supporting characters and at times some of their purposes got a little confusing.

I want to read the second one anyway, because I can see that the Legendary Alston Boys and the town of Fry have a lot of potential. This one just dragged a little for me. I’ll hand it to fans of adventure stories.

ina_loves_books's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

4.25

lcarslibrarian's review against another edition

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4.0

A fun, zany, sci-fi adventure. Kids who like the wordplay in books like The Phantom Tollbooth would like this one!