Oscar and the Amazing Gravity Repellent by Tina L. Peterson is a book that hooks you from the title, baits you with curiosity once you start reading it and reels you in once you’re 20 pages deep. It’s a story with characters that any student 8 or older will relate to and does so in a way that surprising and very mature. By ‘mature’ I mean that there aren’t any juvenile pranks, body noise jokes, aloof parents or other things that might be in an upper elementary to middle school book. If your reader is down Wimpy Kid, but looking for something with almost no pictures, a strong sense of storytelling and lots of imagination then they’ll love this book.
Oscar Schmidt is learning about gravity. Actually he’s been learning about gravity for years because he’s a klutz. He’s an uncoordinated mess who falls at the most inappropriate times, isn’t good at sports and has his clumsiness forever frozen in the concrete in front of his house with his butt print. Thankfully he lives next to Asha, who is his best friend and helps ease the embarrassment when he stumbles.
Today Oscar is going to the store for the first time by himself. On the way back he startles a raccoon that scurries off through the bushes. He happens to kick a stone, which goes into the bushes where it makes a big CLANK, something otherwise not associated with bushes. Against his better gravity impaired judgment he follows the critter, where he promptly falls down a small hill.
It’s here where Oscar discovers the Dr. Oopsie’s Traveling Tower of Tonics, a caboose that is covered with vines, some tree roots, probably a couple spiders and other unseen scary things. After his initial visit he comes back where he musters up the courage to go past the spiders to find what looks like an abandoned medical show on wheels. He picks up one of the containers labeled gravity repellent.
After this he realizes the power of avoiding gravity, but it comes with a cost. It’s scary and is one with a finite supply that’s limited to what is in the bottle. Oscar learns the value of a being tethered to something and how to apply the magical potion. Of course he has to share this very special secret with his best friend.
Once he does that the book turns slightly more mature, in the fact that Oscar learns some valuable lesson on friendship, responsibility, as well as cause and effect. The school bully, Zach, also figures into the story when he accidentally discovers the caboose and is on the verge of going inside.
This is what surprised me about Oscar and the Amazing Gravity Repellent. It is a children’s book, however, it’s less silly than other age appropriate books, but it’s fun, engaging and quickly paced. It succeeds in being funny, wondrous and encouraging kids to read, without being a book that predominately relies on potty humor. When the characters in the book do something dangerous, they sometimes fail-and get hurt. There are consequences to their actions, something that is rarely seen in a book for this age group.
Each chapter in Oscar and the Amazing Gravity Repellent is around nine pages and has vocabulary that upper elementary students (who like to read) and middle school kids will enjoy.
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