Weird Stuff

Soccer star Brian Hobble (AKA the Ice Man) is like any normal kid. He likes soccer, but what he likes even more than soccer is girls! One in particular - Cassandra Wyman - but she pretends that Brian isn't even alive. After a big soccer game (that Brian helped win) he feels as though he is on top of the world. Things get better when Brian's favorite author, Lancelot Cummins, visits his school. Everyone is amazed that the author who wrote Brown Gunk From Mars, The Flushing, and My Mom is a Zombie Killer has come to their ordinary school to help them learn English. Mr. Cummins gives the class an assignment, to write what would happen in fifteen minutes while observing their neighborhood. Brian, not being much of a writer, tries to waste time (i.e. taking awhile to write his name). Once he begins to write his pen runs out of ink and the school nerd, Nathan Lumsdyke, lends Brian one of his. Brian turns his nose up at the pink Easyflow pen, but nevertheless begins writing. His penmanship with this pen transcends from messy to neat and flowery. Before he knows it, Brian has written four-and-a-half pages. Seeing Brian's long piece, Mr. Cummins asks him to read it aloud and Brian, who does not remember what he has written, is intrigued himself. Brian and the whole class learns that instead of writing about his neighborhood, the pen had written a romantic love story! His story is both captivating and stimulating, but he is still made fun of by the guys in his grade. Brian soon discovers that the pen only writes embarrassing love stories (after he wrote about two frogs in love for his science test). He can't wait to give the pen back to Nathan, but when Brian discovers that Lancelot Cummins and, more importantly, Cassandra Wyman, are interested in what he writes, who knows what will happen? Reviewed by: Jeremey