The Qwikpick Adventure Society

by Sam Riddleburger and Tom Angleberger

“Major Sewer Upgrade Ready in Crickenburg” —Crickenburg Gazette Lyle Hertzog and his two friends Marilla and Dave have no plans for Christmas Day. They’ll probably just hang out at the local Qwikpick like they always do. But when an article in the hometown newspaper catches their eye, suddenly the three friends (aka members of the Qwikpick Adventure Society) realize that they must venture forth for a farewell tribute to the old sludge fountain at...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803731787
• ISBN13: 9780803731783
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Dial Books
• Length: 127 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 8 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 3 and higher

Customer Reviews

A must-read for the kid or grown-up kid!

This is a cleverly written children's book with a thus-far-untapped plot location...it touches on every kid's fascination with a.) gross stuff and b.) forbidden places. My son ( now 10 )loves this book and identifies with the characters fully. The book's characters are sympathetic and believable and resonate with the kid in each of us. The author is obviously a kid at heart who never lost his spirit of adventure. His sense of youthful merriment translates throughout every page. I hope to see further QuikPick adventures in future! Well done!

So funny I cried

I really liked this book because it is funny. I really liked it because it brought back so many memories of feeling left out, living in a trailer park, starting to like the oposite sex, etc. Many topics are approached here (including sewage treatment), but most of them are stated matter-of-fact. The main point seems to be you can be friends with different races, religions, socio-economic groups, etc. Though none of these are really hammered. They are simply part of these childrens' lives.

The straight poop

As a children's book reviewer there is one fact that you must keep at the forefront of your mind at all times: You are not a kid. Not usually anyway. And because you are not a kid, you are not going to read a book the way a kid does. I keep talking in my reviews about how your own personal prejudices affect your interpretation of the book in front of you, but it's bloody true. I mean, take scatological humor in all its myriad forms. When I read How to Eat Fried Worms as an adult, I didn't actually expect the hero to eat worms (let alone 30+ of them). And when I read Out of Patience by Brian Meehl last year I really enjoyed it until the moment when the local fertilizer plant became... well, you'd have to read the book to grasp the full horror of the situation. Actually, "Out of Patience" was the title I kept thinking of as I got deeper and deeper into "The Qwikpick Adventure Society". Both books are funny and smart and both involve gross quantities of waste to an extent you might never expect. I am an adult. I have a hard time with poop. Poop aside (and that's saying something) there's a lot of great stuff going on in this book. It's definitely a keeper, but it's going to have a hard hard time winning over its primary purchasing audience, adults. Lyle Hertzog is going to level with you right from the start. In this story he and his friends, "didn't stop a smuggling ring or get mixed up with the mob or stop an ancient evil from rising up and spreading black terror across Crickenburg." Nope. This is the story of Lyle, Dave, and Marilla and their club's first adventure. The kids say that they're The Qwikpick Adventure Society because they meet regularly in the break room of the local Qwikpick convenience store where Lyle's parents work. When it occurs to the three that they'll all be available to hang out on Christmas Day, they decide to do something extraordinary. Something unprecedented. And when Marilla discovers that the local "antiquated sludge fountain" at the Crickenburg sewer plant is about to be replaced, they know exactly what to do. They must see the poop fountain before it is gone. The result is a small adventure that is exciting, frightening, and very very pungent. Someone once told me that this book reminded them of Stand By Me, "except no dead bodies and no Will Wheaton." They may be on to something there. Author Sam Riddleburger (who broke my heart when I discovered that this name was a pseudonym), works the relationships between the kids nicely. It's a little hard to get into the heads of all the characters considering that we're seeing everything through Lyle's point of view, but the author does what he can. As for the "sludge fountain" itself, kids looking for gross moments will not be disappointed. You might be able to sell it to their parents with the argument that it's actually rather informative and factual on this point (though I suggest that you play up the relationship aspect instead). There a

Funny! Funny! Funny!

Even though I know this book is really for older kids, I read this story to my seven-year-old daughter and she loved it. I don't think I've ever heard her laugh so hard! Even though my twin boys were supposed to be sleeping in the adjoining room, I heard them giggling pretty much every night too. I couldn't help but laugh myself. I mean, I'm old enough to think that sneaking into the sewer plant is not that funny, but the way the author wrote it got to me. The book reminded me of myself in eighth grade--when everything was either extremely embarrassing or extremely hilarious. It really took me back. When I finished, my kids said it was the funniest book they ever heard and begged me to read it again.

Charming Tale of Misfits on a Mission

It's not every book we can open at random to find a line like "You know why I said yes to the poop fountain, but why on earth did Dave say yes?" Thanks Sam Riddleburger's excellent first novel, now there is at least one book that we can! With great humor and charm, The Qwikpick Adventure Society tells the tale of three misfits who band together for an offbeat Christmas day escapade. The story centers on the friendship of narrator Lyle Hertzog, his conscientious buddy Dave Raskin (or as Lyle likes to call him, "the number-one rule-follower of all time") and the spirited Marilla Anderson. Together they form the Qwikpick Adventure Society, named for the room above the Qwikpick convenience store where the three hang out. As is appropriate for a volume that aims to chronicle the proceedings of the club, The Qwikpick Adventure Society has a scrapbook feel--blending Lyle's amusing narrative, Marilla's somewhat off-center photographs, and Dave's drawings (including diagrams, maps and a page from a comic entitled "All-Zombie Marching Band"). This mix, combined with Lyle's conversational tone, make Qwikpick an ideal choice for a reluctant reader. That said, there is much here that will delight anyone who loves a fun and funny story.