Courtney Umlauf's Reviews > Fake Mustache

I found this book on a list of what to read if you like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I don't like the Wimpy Kids series, but I'm always looking for books that are similar in style but with better execution. I don't mind a book that's silly, goofy, to be read purely for entertainment purposes; but I still expect it to be clever and well-put together. This book wasn't what I was looking for. The premise had me hopeful: a fake mustache that's so realistic it hypnotizes everyone who sees it on the face of Casper, putting him on the path to world domination. Everyone, that is, except his friend Lenny (who witnessed him buying the mustache) and Jodie O'Rodeo, "preteen,cowgirl queen". Lenny and Jodie team up to prevent Casper's global take-over.

Fake Mustache has a lot of funny tidbits, but a lot of times they don't make sense within the narrative. At the start of the story, we get a description of the town of Hairsprinkle.

Hairsprinkle still has its trolleys, and you can still ride them for ten cents. The people in Hairsprinkle won't elect anyone to be mayor unless he or she promises to never change a thing. My dad, Lenny Flem Sr., says that it costs a ton of money to keep the trolleys running and the the ten-cent fair doesn't even begin to pay for it, and that's why his taxes are so high and he's sick of it.

This is a start for what could be a very interesting setting. But this aspect of the town never comes up again. To make matters worse, later on Lenny overhears a conversation (involving a Belgian character, repeatedly described as sounding "not exactly French but sort of French"). The Belgian asks

'By the way, is there a bicycle shop around here? I need a quick way to get around town without burning fossil fuels.'

'The bike shop closed when Walmart came'

You can't create a setting where nothing's changed in a hundred years and then casually mention the town Walmart just for a cheap laugh. Most of the jokes were similar - mildly funny when you look at it in the context of a few sentences or a paragraph. But in the context of the entire story they don't make sense.

Overall, I would still recommend this to a certain type of reluctant reader. If they enjoy Wimpy Kid they'll probably enjoy this. If you're trying to get a kid to love reading, there's not many books that I would say you should avoid if it will get them engaged, even if I dislike them personally. I do think this is a little better than Wimpy Kid. I saw a lot of interesting potential for a funny book, but you don't have to sacrifice narrative cohesion for a few laughs. Just check out the Franny K. Stein series by Jim Benton. That's still my benchmark for what a great kids story can be - funny (to both adults and kids), cleverly written with a great vocabulary, memorable characters (kids that aren't brats and adults that aren't stupid) and a narrative that makes sense. Unfortunately, I've read all the Franny K. Stein books, I'll have to continue my search for more like it.