I Want to Go Home!

Rating:
Summary: You can be 10 or 20, this book is hilarious either way!
Review: I first picked up "I want to go home!" when I was around 10. I loved it the first time just as I've loved it all the other 29 odd times I've read it. I wish I could say I was exaggerating but I'm not. Once I even picked up the book again and read it twice in the same afternoon! Rudy Miller is someone who could never really exist. Like Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. The power that these characters generate is so strong that you get to like them a lot. Or you wish they actually existed. The story of 'I want to go home' is about a boy who's good at everything without trying. In his inscription Gordon Korman says "There's fun, and then there's fun. This is dedicated to those who know the difference." The fun of the chase, the game. Rudy has to find trouble to make things fun because everything else comes so easily to him. The situations that he creates are what seperate this book from any other comic childrens book ever written. I don't care if you're 100 or 15, like myself, if you like humour you'll like this book!

Rating:
Summary: I loved it!!
Review: I first read this book when I was 10 (I'm now 27), and I love it just as much now as I did then. In fact, this book started me collecting as many of Gordon's books as I could. GK has a gift for creating realistic characters and putting them in humorous situations without things getting silly. I have enjoyed all of his books that I've read, which either means he's really talented, or I'm REALLY immature.

Rating:
Summary: A CLASSIC!
Review: I was recently asked to recommend a book for a middle-school aged boy who dislikes reading. This book was my immediate reply. There is not a single young reader who can resist the antics of Rudy Miller, a boy who is the best at everything he does, whether he wants to be or not. So when he sets his mind to hating camp and doing all he can to escape, the result is a spectacular and hilarious story of insane plans and even more insane counselors.
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Rating:
Summary: A CLASSIC!
Review: My cousin first introduced me to this book about 10 years ago, and I must say, I've been coming to her for good-reading suggestions ever since. When my brother was about nine, nobody could get him to come within ten feet of a book if it wasn't necessary for school. I finally came up with the idea of reading "I Want to Go Home!" to him. (I didn't dream of making him read it on his own.) Well, every night for the next couple of weeks, the sound of ringing laughter could be heard coming from his bedroom at night. After we were about halfway through, I was in for a surprise -- he had begun reading the book on his own! He's been almost an avid reader ever since, and he still loves to re-read this family classic. (P.S. This technique -- and this book -- worked for my youngest brother, as well.) And all three of us liked camp.

Rating:
Summary: Among Korman's Best
Review: This book starts out strong and doesn't let up until the end. I can't imagine how anyone could read this book and not laugh all the way through it!

Camp Algonkian Island is every campers dream. Or so the counselors and the camp director, Mr. Warden, believe. None of them are prepared for Rudy Miller. Rudy doesn't want to be at camp; he's determined to go home and he'll do anything he has to do in order to escape 'Alcatraz' (his preferred nickname for the island) and the clones (what he calls the counselors). His counselor in Cabin 13, Chip, isn't quite sure what to do with the Rudy when he refuses to participate in all camp activites by saying he 'doesn't do them'. Chip's problems have only begun when Mike Webster joins Rudy as another camper who would prefer to be elsewhere and finds himself swept up into Rudy's somewhat dramatic, and hilarious, attempts at escape.

Between repeated escape attempts, seemingly endless punishment duty, and an ongoing feud with cabinmate Harold Green, the counselors manage to force Rudy into participation and find that not only can he DO all the things he refused to participate in, Rudy has the abilities of a natural born overachiever! He wins at every sport, game and contest that he competes in -- but he still wants to go home.

Hilarity ensues as Rudy and Mike build dams, take boats, and escape from events off the island in their attempts to get away from camp while various counselors try to bribe Rudy into playing on camp teams (thus assuring they'd win); meanwhile, Rudy is slowly driving Chip toward a nervous breakdown.

Rudy's blase attitude and dead pan humor are dead on and this book is a masterpiece. No matter your age this book will be truly enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: This was one of my favorite books growing up. I read it until the cover and copyright pages fell off, and by using regular scotch tape I was able to keep the text of the book together.

Now, at the age of 20, went back to read it and surprisingly the book was still as funny as the first time. So I had to order a new copy to replace my tattered one. I had to pay $11 used, but it was worth it. If you see this book cheap anywhere DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and PICK IT UP.

It's amazing how over the years I've quoted this book without realizing it. As I was re-reading it I caught myself saying, Hey! I've said simular things in simular situations.

Probably the reason this book resonates so deeply is because all the characters all feel genuine. You've got Rudy Miller who doesn't want to go to camp and tries to escape (and excells at everything he does when forced to do it)... Mike Webster who becomes Rudy's one friend in camp and hates it as much as Rudy (without the side complication of being good at anything)... Chip, their camp "clone" councilor, who ends up as the brunt of Rudy's dry humor... Pierre, the arts and crafts councilor, who comes as close as anyone to understanding Miller.

It's a shame this book is out of print. Most kids would identify with this book and enjoy it. I highly reccomend it.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for the non-camper
Review: Twelve years later and it's still my favorite book! It's just so witty and intelligent, and so funny! If you buy this book for your kid and he reads before bed, keep your ears open. I garauntee you'll hear him laughing into his pillow!