Here's a fact: My new friend Calvin Waffle is 100% Weird
Danny Cohen and Calvin Waffle are two very different kids. Danny likes playing baseball; Calvin enjoys strange experiments. Danny follows the rules at school; Calvin tries to drive his teacher crazy.
Danny and Calvin decide to team up for the big jelly bean experiment. Will it lead to trouble? Maybe. Will they have fun trying? You can count on it.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
David Adler rocks!
By Happy2CatOwner
If you loved Cam Jansen then you are going to LOVE Danny's Doodles. I got this for my 1st grade nephew and he loves it, and asked me to read it with him 3 different times while we were there. Talk about making a kiddo happy!! I am already excited to see the next one.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A Kind, Gentle, Low-Key Book
By Pop Bop
David Adler is the author of the Cam Jansen mysteries, which is a very popular series featuring a kid sleuth with a photographic memory. Those books are fine as basic introductory mysteries, but the characters and plots are very thin. The Danny's Doodles books, starting with this one, offer an entirely different experience and, to me, mark a major step up in class, style and substance by the author.All of the kid characters are fourth grade classmates. The target readership, at least according to the publisher, is grades one through three, which sounds right, but shouldn't discourage older kids from reading the books. Usually, for this audience, we get zany and antic plots and we get bigger than life heroes and heroines who have a knack for messing up and/or creating chaos. I can think of a dozen such characters right off the top of my head. This book delivers more.Danny is the narrator; Calvin is the "weird" loner; Annie is a slightly bossy classmate with a mild sneaker for Danny; Douglas is a classmate who just ignores Calvin because he's weird. Each of these kids confounds your expectations by being decent, generous, understanding, honest and kind every time there is an opportunity for the usual fictional angst or smartmouth or meanness. They are anti-fictional; they are real-real.Danny is more patient with Calvin than you expect. Annie and Douglas are more opening to getting to know and like Calvin than you expect. Calvin is smarter, funnier, wiser, sadder and more socially attuned than you expect. Just when you think someone is going to get annoyed, they display understanding. Just when you expect anger you get forgiveness. Just when you expect childish drama you get restraint and perspective.The action here is small. PLOT SPOILER ALERT. Calvin does an experiment to see if people treat Danny differently when he smells of jelly beans. The kids work as partners on a school report. Calvin helps the baseball team by reading the opposing pitcher's body language. The kids overlook Calvin's oddly touching fiction about where his father is. Everyone is bemused by Calvin's eccentric mother.The writing is neither drippy nor cute. The dialogue says more than the people speaking realize. Danny's musing are not self-conscious and are almost age appropriate, but again, they tell us more than Danny realizes. There is a lot going on in this slim volume and it's all good. This is quality writing.Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.Fun for Ages 7-10
By Dena
I read this to my kids and they really enjoyed it even though they are younger than the intended age range. Danny is a really nice boy that can't make head nor tails of his new, weird friend who's father may or may not be a spy. Danny goes along with Calvin's strange experiments and is nice to him even when everyone else gives him sideways glances. He also makes an effort on Calvin's behalf by inviting some kids to Calvin's party and by inviting him to the big baseball game. Danny is a good example of kindness and acceptance. He makes an effort to look past Calvin's oddness and see the good in him.I like this book for several reasons. It is easy to read and comprehend. It deals with a boy that could easily become the target of bullying, but instead shows a wonderful example of how that can be avoided. The moral is a nice side effect of the story. The story focuses on the jelly bean experiment and the friendship between Danny, Calvin, and a couple other kids. The moral of kindness is just a natural byproduct of the story.The copy that I have is unfinished, so the illustrations are few in number and most aren't the final artwork. But there are enough spot illustrations scattered throughout the book to keep a child interested in the story through to the end.This book is targeted at kids ages 7-10.
