City News

            The book that I am writing a review on is Fake Mustache by Tom angleberger. In this book we see Lenny Flem Jr., a middle school nerd, tag along with his best friend, Casper. Lenny then discovers that Casper is a dangerous person. Lenny then attempts to defeat Casper, along with the help of a famous cowgirl television star, Jodie O’Rodeo. Jodie is looking for a way to get back on top after her show stopped airing and believes defeating Casper will help her do this. 

            The book starts off as Casper which is Lenny’s best friend, buying the Heildelberg Handlebar Number Seven. The Heildelberg Handlebar Number Seven is the greatest fake mustache of all time, it gives the power to control people but no one knows about the power it holds. This event is then followed up by a robbery of several banks and stores in Hairsprinkle County. HairSprinkle county is where the story takes place. Lenny Flem Jr. suspects that Casper is the mastermind behind these robberies, so he reports Casper the police. Casper then finds out that Lenny reported him to the police, so Casper brainwashes the people of Hairsprinkle with the power of his mustache in order to capture Lenny. After this event, Lenny changes into a disguise. Lenny picks a Jodie O’Rodeo costume, so that no one would notice him as Lenny (the evil one). Lenny then meets Jodie O’Rodeo and they figure out that Casper is the mastermind behind the Robberies and that they need to stop him before he controls the entire town. Together Jodie and Lenny try to stop the evil forces of Casper and his fake mustache. They find out that Casper is planning to become president and then take over the world. Lenny and Jodie O’Rodeo then race to the election, where Casper is running for president. Jodie and Lenny then stop Casper by taking his fake mustache off and leaving him powerless, because he cannot control people anymore.  

            Overall, this book was really good. It had a lot of action and suspense as well as laughter and comedy. One example of comedy was when Lenny and Jodie were stuck in a goo tube mixed with confetti. They were both sliding down the tube and it was really hilarious. Another example of comedy was when Lenny was hiding from the brainwashed people by putting on a Jodie O’Rodeo halloween costume. He then bumped into the real Jodie O’Rodeo and it was very funny. One example of action was when Lenny was racing to get away from the brainwashed people that called him the evil one. Lenny raced down a giant dirt hill and hit a bike jump and flew into the air. It was very suspenseful and was one of my favorite scenes in the book. 

I would rate this book an 8.5 out of 10 because, though it had an interesting plot, the events and decisions that the characters made weren’t really that interesting thus making the book pretty predictable. I would suggest this book to anyone between the grade levels of 5th and 6^th, as well as anyone who enjoys a wacky story.

 Checkout Fake Mustache at the Newport Beach Public Library.