Huge

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / Mystery / General / Fuerst, James
On Shelf At: Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Mystery / General / Fuerst, James	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Twelve-year-old Eugene "Huge" Smalls is short, mean, angry, and brilliant, characteristics which win him no friends, but he is also an amateur sleuth with his first real case, which leads him to believe life might be better if he did not imagine himself a character in a Raymond Chandler novel.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

funny book submitted by manz on June 19, 2010, 9:34am This is a funny coming-of-age tale set in the early 1980s, and it is ripe with hilarious 80s references. I like finding good books written for adults that have a youth as the main character. Here we have 12 year old Eugene "Huge" Smalls. It's the summer before he enters Junior High, and it's quite an adventure for him. Just don't call him "Genie," the name's "Huge."

His best friend, thus far, is a stuffed frog, and he has some anger issues that this frog helps him deal with. His grandmother's elder care facility has been vandalized and his grandmother hires him to solve the crime. He deals with his teenage sister, the town bullies, and his first major crush. He has a super sweet cruiser (with a banana seat!) that he cruises around town in, gathering clues for his case. His grandmother schooled him in old school sleuths and he looks to Holmes and Marlowe to help solve the crime.

Huge learns a lot that summer. He is a truly original character, he's larger than life.

This book reminded me somewhat of the book "What Was Lost," by Catherine O'Flynne. Where the main character is also a pre-teen, and she too is a wanna-be detective solving crimes, and carrying around a stuffed monkey as her co-pilot. The feel of the two books is different, but there are definitely similarities.