Review Detail

This book is a notebook about
a semi-artsy fartsy kid named Aldo Zelnick. He is ten and lives 1 hour from
Denver, CO. What a coincidence! One day, when he and his friend, Jack, who is
obsessed about rocks, are playing kick the rock, they see a shiny stone in the
storm grate. When Jack grabs it, it turns out to be a ring. Aldo takes it and
says its bogus, but Jack tries to prove him wrong and does all these
tests on the ring and it turns out it is real. Aldo still doesnt believe him
and puts the ring in his pocket and goes home.

            At his house, Aldo puts some weird lint in the pocket.
Then, he goes to the pet store with his dad to get his dog, Max, groomed. While
he is waiting for his dog, he sees a beta fish in a small bowl all alone.  He asks his dad to get it and he says yes.
Then they get Max and head home. Aldo sets op the bowl and watches his fish. He
thinks hes bored, so he puts the ring in. His dad comes up with bacon and
tells him to feed his fish. Jack calls him and tells him to bring the ring to
his moms house. Aldo grabs the ring and it is filthy and wet. He puts it in
his pocket with the lint in it, hops on his bike, and heads to Jacks Moms
house.

            On his way, he meets his other friend, Bee, and her
sister, Vivi, working in their garden. They ask if Aldo can donate some money
to her pen pal in Bhutan. He said no and realized the ring was gone. He saw
Vivi it.  He took it and got to Jacks
house. Jack got mad at him for it being so filthy. He cleaned it with bubble
bath and did more tests. He said it was real but Aldo still didnt believe him
and he took of with the ring.

            A day later, Jack asked Aldo to go swimming with him. Aldo
agrees and meets him there. Aldo throws the ring in the water and they chase
after it. Soon, when they are getting dried off, they notice that the ring is
missing.  They see someone picking it up
and take it from him in the nick of time. Later, when they go back to Aldos
house, they lose the ring again! Aldo doesnt worry about it because he thinks
its bogus. But, in the news the next day the ring they found had been lost and
had a 1,000$ reward. Will Aldo, Jack and Bee find the ring and get 1,000$? Read
the book to find out.

            The author did a great job describing the setting and
characters. The author made you be able to visualize what Aldo and his room
looked like. You could also visualize his backyard and his neighborhood. The
author could have described the characters feelings better because at one
point, when Jack and Aldo lose the ring for the first time, the author doesnt
say how they feel.

            I
think people who like funny mystery autobiographies should read this book.
These people should read it because it has a mystery in it, it is about a kids
life, and it has comics and jokes. I would easily give this book 5 stars.