Wonkenstein
By Obert Skye
4/5
()
About this ebook
Twelve-year-old underachiever Rob has better things to do than read. His parents give him lots of books but most of them just end up in the messy pile of junk he keeps locked in his closet that once doubled as a makeshift science laboratory. One day, Rob hears weird sounds coming from behind his closet door and discovers a funny little creature that seems to be a cross between two characters from books he's tried to ignore. He names him Wonkenstein.
Keeping track of "Wonk" is hard work. But with help from friends and a little off-the-wall magic, Rob and Wonkenstein's crazy adventures set the stage for great laughs . . . and Rob might even read some good books along the way.
Obert Skye
Obert Skye is the author of the bestselling Leven Thumps series, the Creature from My Closet series, the Witherwood Reform School series, and the Mutant Bunny Island series. As far as he knows, he has never been attacked by either bunnies or newts. There is still time, however. He lives in Arizona with his family. Learn more about him at www.obertskye.com.
Read more from Obert Skye
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Wonkenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Potterwookiee: The Creature from My Closet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pinocula Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Katfish Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
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Reviews for Wonkenstein
19 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Super creative and fun way to introduce my 3rd grader to some great characters from literature. We are really looking forward to the rest of this series.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really fun middle grade book, half graphic novel, half prose. What happens when your closet is a crazy mess? Things start mutating…that’s how Wonkenstein comes to be! Willy Wonka mixed with Frankenstein - it’s gotta be good!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is very funny and I liked all of the illustrations by the author. I alos liked how Wonkenstein was a combination of two famous characters from literature mixed together.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Children's LiteratureHow do you encourage a twelve-year-old underachiever to read when he prefers to do anything else but that? Having a creative, motivating creature, Wonkenstein, in his closet is a start. This fun adventure of a boy named Robert Columbo Burnside may well send reluctant readers to the library. To vision Rob's monster's appearance think of a hybrid Willy Wonka and Frankenstein. This combination makes for an original and funny character whose antics will intrigue young readers. Whimsical black and white child-like illustrations (although the entire text and illustrations are printed in blue) are presented in the first person, and will captivate the reader further as Rob narrates events with the help of these sketches. Although Rob wants to keep Wonka a secret from his family and friends, he does become rather attached to him. Skye transitions from reality into fiction seamlessly throughout the story, and will keep even teen readers engaged in the story. Potterwookiee: The Creature From My Closet will be a Book II sequel
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Robert Burnside is a twelve year old with a problem. No, besides the funny name, or his goofy younger brother, or his older sister, or his parents. That's just the normal stuff. He also has a funny little creature that came out of his closet. True, it almost popped out of the overstuffed closet where Robert throws everything. The problem is Robert doesn't know what it is or what to do with it. It looks like something Dr. Frankenstein might have made in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Worst of all, it won't go back into the closet and it seems to keep getting Robert in trouble. The book is easy to read with lots of cool illustrations to help with the laughs. The book was provided for review by Macmillan Children's Publishing Group.
Book preview
Wonkenstein - Obert Skye
CHAPTER 1
THE CLOSET DOOR
This is not your normal book. Normal books begin with things like Once upon a time
or Jimmy Pennyworth was a fine young man with a bright future, blah, blah, blah.…
And since you’ve read this far, you can clearly see that this book begins with neither of those.
My name is Robert Columbo Burnside. I got my first name from my mom’s dad, my middle name from some TV detective my parents like, and my last name from my father. Our family is related to the man who invented sideburns—which really isn’t that great a discovery.
Old people call me Bobby, my friends call me Rob, and my mother calls me Ribert—a name that is very embarrassing. Like the time when she yelled out for me at the store, she sounded like a frog. I had to hide just so Melanie Wolf wouldn’t see it was me.
Of course, it was even more embarrassing when I tripped climbing out of the ball bin and smashed into Melanie as she was putting on lip gloss. The tube went halfway up her nose.
I’ll have to cross Melanie off my list of girls who secretly might like me.
My dad doesn’t call me Ribert. He calls me Robert, and he’s a pretty good dad. His name is Earl, and he sells playground equipment. He’s always smiling and talking about how he has the best job on earth.
Even though he’s nice, he’s also embarrassing. He always wears a suit and tie. Plus, he thinks everyone he meets is his new best friend.
I probably wouldn’t write any of this down if it weren’t for my oddly disturbing closet. But because of that, I’ve decided I should document some of the stuff going on in my life, for the sake of science and scientific study. Who knows? It could be important someday.
When I got my own room five years ago, there wasn’t a door for the closet. So my dad went out and found a door at a garage sale that he thought worked perfectly. I thought it worked, but not perfectly. It’s very heavy. I break into a sweat just trying to open it.
My dad claims the door’s made of wood, but I’m pretty sure it’s made out of lead. It also has a goofy sticker of a dumb pony with the word SMILE on it. We tried to scrape it off, but whoever owned the door before us painted over it with shellac, so now it’s permanent.
I don’t really care that much about the door, but there’s one thing that really makes me uneasy, and that’s the doorknob—it’s big and gold, with the ornate engraving of a small, smiling, bearded man on it.
I’ve asked my dad to change the doorknob a thousand times, but he just says …
I don’t agree—the doorknob creeps me out. It seems like the little bearded man is always looking at me. Sometimes I have to put a towel over the doorknob just so I can change into my clothes.
I only mention the door because it probably has something to do with the condition of my closet. See, my closet’s not really just a closet.
When I first got my own room, I wanted to turn my closet into a laboratory. But my parents wouldn’t buy me a chemistry set, so I had to collect my own lab supplies. I took all the ketchup and relish and mustard from our refrigerator. I gathered all the cleaning supplies and shampoo I could find. And I took some of my mom’s and sister’s makeup when they weren’t looking. Then I mixed the condiments and makeup with Play-Doh and mud in my closet and tried to discover a cure for everything from chapped lips to hangnails. I never really cured anything except cleanliness.
After I failed at that, my closet became just a place where I could shove things I didn’t want to bother with anymore—things like my sister.
Libby is my slightly older sister. As far as sisters go, she’s pretty close to the most painful one ever created. She’s always looking in the mirror and commenting on how beautiful she is. When she was in sixth grade, she lost the spelling bee because of her vanity. The word was beautiful, and she spelled it …
Libby isn’t allowed anywhere near my closet unless I’m pushing her in. Besides, she claims it makes weird noises when I’m not around. That doesn’t surprise me. I put everything in my closet—toys I’ve outgrown, clothes that no longer fit, sports equipment I was never good with, trash, and all the hundreds of books my mother tries to make me read. Books