When I was 11, I spent the bulk of my time geeking out over mere glimpses of MTV, marveling over E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and secretly hoping I would some day be asked to become the sixth member of The Go-Go’s. I like to think I was a fairly typical 11-year-old. Walter Levin is a totally different story.
After completing his first 10K at the age of 8, Walter went on to become a black belt in Taekwondo, a drummer, and a unicyclist. At 11, he published his first book, The Kid Who Went to the Moon. He’s certainly not the youngest to ever author a book, but he may be the youngest who can call Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, co-creator of Phineas & Ferb, a fan of his work.
“I’m so impressed with the imagination and storytelling ability of this young man! His tale would make a perfect Phineas & Ferb adventure,” says Marsh. “If we’re still around in a few years, I’d happily give him a job. (Heck, let’s be honest, I’ll probably be asking him for a job).”
If his book is any indication of Walter’s future plans, the kid may be a little busy. The Kid Who Went to the Moon is the fun tale of 12-year-old James Gibson, a boy who dreams of going to the Moon. Of course, the title of the book may be a bit of a spoiler. However, it’s really about the crazy lengths that James goes through to make his dream become a reality.
The lengths are indeed crazy—unbelievable, in fact. However, to the book’s target audience, does it really matter how a kid spends his $2 million prize from a combination poetry/baseball contest? That and pretty much everything else that James does to pull off his plan is downright hilarious. At least that’s what I assumed from all of my 7-year-old son’s giggles.
The book does have an occasional fart joke here and a puke reference there. It was written by a kid and will appeal to kids. That said, it also includes a lot of love for NASA and space travel. How can you go wrong with that?
My son and I read this book together, but it’s definitely one that he could have tackled all on his own. Even though there’s less than a handful of illustrations in this book, at just 60 pages, it’s an incredibly easy read for kids. He was certainly riveted—but really, the adventures of anyone remotely close to his age will do that. The bodily functions, the baseball, and the blasting off into space didn’t hurt, either. However, I could easily see The Kid Who Went to the Moon appealing to readers all the way up to the age of 15. This young author knows how to grab the attention of his audience, with creative ideas and pop culture references aplenty.
GeekMom received this item for review purposes.
