Calame, Don Dan Versus Nature, 375 pages. Candlewick Press, 2016. $17.99. Mature Content: R; Language: R (93 swears, 12 “f”); Violence:
R.
Dan’s mother is in love again, but this time, her suitor,
Hank, has proposed marriage. As a
surprise for his 16th birthday, Dan’s mother has “gifted” him a
weeklong, guided outdoor survival experience with Hank so that the two can get
to know each other. Apparently she never
noticed her son is an artsy, nerdy, avid indoors-man, and Hank doesn’t seem too
thrilled about it either. Dan is
alarmed at the prospect of their marriage, which would result in his having to
move to a new high school for junior year, so he and his friend Charlie (who
inexplicably joins them on the trip) cook up a plan to thoroughly disgust and
repel Hank from wanting to be his new dad.
The first 300 pages of this book contain endless, senseless
gross-out gags, with very little character development or situational
depth. Hank does his best to take all
the abuse in stride, but Dan and his friend are truly unlikable for a
tremendous part of the book, and only start to change at the tail end of their
trip. It’s a very juvenile premise,
densely packed with middle-school bodily function humor that’s interspersed
with sexual longing, so I’m not sure what audience the author is going for. He may have been trying to appeal to older
readers by adding Charlie’s scientific and erudite banter with Penelope, a
fellow survivalist on the trip, but if readers are amused by the foul (though,
blessedly, unrealistic and forgettable) situations in the book, I doubt they
are going to be inspired by the advanced vocabulary.
NOT RECOMMENDED.
Reviewed by JA, High School Librarian
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