Weenie Series: Samantha Wanner

I chose to read the Weenie Series, and in doing so I had no idea what I was signing up for. I read the first few pages, and it seemed like a very short chapter. I then read what I thought was the next chapter, and it had nothing to do with the first one. It didn’t take long after that for me to realize that they were not actually chapters but short stories. I guess I should have read the title more carefully. As I got to reading, I really started to enjoy it. I actually found myself laughing out loud quite a few times – I got some weird looks from my sister. At first I disliked how quickly the stories ended, but then they kind of grew on me. I found myself thinking, “what kind of crazy story is going to come next?” And that’s another thing I liked, the craziness. These stories aren’t about walking a dog or going to the grocery store. They’re about kids turning into bleu cheese, or vampire catfish, or even talking vegetables. They keep the reader engaged. I think that a lot of young readers would enjoy these books. For a student who has a tough time staying focused or interested in a book, I think the short story style would be perfect. By the time they would start to get bored, the story is over. On the other hand, I think that readers that like long storylines and big books would not enjoy this series. I also think that this series would be good for creative writing. In the back of the book, David Lubar talks about how he came up with the ideas for these stories. He has endless reasons for creating these stories, some of which are just complete nonsense. I think that it would be great to read a few to students and have them get a feel for these stories, and then write their own creative story. It doesn’t have to make sense, just like the stories in the books. The lessons in a lot of the stories have to do with right and wrong, morals, learning life lessons… I also think it could be nice to have students write stories that teach a lesson. Overall I just really like this series, and I’m glad that I chose it. I think it’ll be a great series to start off my classroom library.