Review of
Evil Eye Beagle: Funny Sports Stories, by Harrison Powers ISBN 0893757039
Three out of five stars
This collection of short stories is designed to tickle the funny bones of children ten years old plus-or-minus two. While it hits the age target, it largely misses the funny one. The plots are all based on a high degree of incongruity, for example, the first one features a sad-eyed stray beagle dog that is able to put extreme hexes on people and events. So severe that the jinxed hockey team loses 48 to zero. Another one has a chimpanzee so expert at playing checkers and being annoying that people no longer go to the park where Barney hangs out.
The absurdity of the plots provides a few light chuckles, but the writing is not light and entertaining enough to sustain the stories absent the incongruities. It is a good book for a child to read once and then mentally loose track of it.
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