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A review by thomasroche
Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom by Tim Byrd
4.0
I had to go well out of my way to find a copy of this puppy at an out of town library -- which I did, because of my interest in Doc Savage, on which the Doc/Dad character is based. This middle grade readers adventure story, about an inventor's family going on an adventure to rescue the grandfather from Lovecraftian frog-creatures, is adorable. There are lots of fun inventions and lots of caves, aircraft adventures, etc. It's a great idea and plenty of fun, and if the formatting doesn't bother you then you'll love it even more than I did. If you've got kids (or nephews, nieces, etc) who like adventure fiction, archaeology, science, travel, etc, then this is definitely worth a try.
However, from an adult perspective, I found the formatting the only displeasing thing about it; there are a lot of call-outs, pull quotes, speech bubbles and over 60 chapters in a 186-page book, which broke me up every time I got into a reading flow. I've read zillions of books for middle grade readers, so while it's probably not as jarring to younger readers, I'm pretty familiar with the general principles of the genre and I love middle-grade books. The formatting was supposed to be "innovative" and "clever." Maybe kids would like it, but it made my copyeditor bells go DING DING DING constantly and I swear there were electric sparks shooting out of my ears at times. In the copyediting trade we used to call these formatting tricks "schoolgirling," which is utterly inappropriate when it occurs in a physician's paper on a study of a new chemotherapy-supportive care drug, but really, when used in children's adventure fiction it shouldn't bother the reader. I mean, it's for, you know, schoolgirls, right? But I'm a geezer. It didn't sour me on the book by any stretch, but I had to struggle to get through it.
Which is too bad, because the story's fun and cute and entertaining, and there's lots of fun scientific speculation in it. So if you're not a crotchety old slowly decaying copyeditor from the big city with french roast pumping through his veins and a permanent scowl on his wrinkled face, you'll probably enjoy it even more than I did.
However, from an adult perspective, I found the formatting the only displeasing thing about it; there are a lot of call-outs, pull quotes, speech bubbles and over 60 chapters in a 186-page book, which broke me up every time I got into a reading flow. I've read zillions of books for middle grade readers, so while it's probably not as jarring to younger readers, I'm pretty familiar with the general principles of the genre and I love middle-grade books. The formatting was supposed to be "innovative" and "clever." Maybe kids would like it, but it made my copyeditor bells go DING DING DING constantly and I swear there were electric sparks shooting out of my ears at times. In the copyediting trade we used to call these formatting tricks "schoolgirling," which is utterly inappropriate when it occurs in a physician's paper on a study of a new chemotherapy-supportive care drug, but really, when used in children's adventure fiction it shouldn't bother the reader. I mean, it's for, you know, schoolgirls, right? But I'm a geezer. It didn't sour me on the book by any stretch, but I had to struggle to get through it.
Which is too bad, because the story's fun and cute and entertaining, and there's lots of fun scientific speculation in it. So if you're not a crotchety old slowly decaying copyeditor from the big city with french roast pumping through his veins and a permanent scowl on his wrinkled face, you'll probably enjoy it even more than I did.