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Timmy Failure: Mistakes were Made

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Timmy Failure:  Mistakes Were Made
by Stephan Pastis
Candlewick, 2013.  294 pgs. Fiction

     Move over, Wimpy Kid.  Timmy Failure is even wimpier than you are, but he just doesn't know it. In fact, he thinks he is the greatest detective on the planet. His business partner, Total, is a (probably imaginary) polar bear and with the help of Total and his mother's borrowed-without-her-permission Segway, Timmy is out and about the neighborhood in behalf of  his business, Total Failure, Inc.
 ("We won't fail, despite what the name says.") Timmy has the solution to case after case handed to him on a platter, but he prefers to take a more circuitous route making the puzzles presented him more and more complex until they have no solution--except to everyone else.  In these pages you will learn more about Timmy's best friend Rollo Tookus, who actually studies in school; Senor Burrito, the cat with a teacup fetish, and Timmy's test-taking technique, which consists of filling in multiple choice blanks on bubble forms in decorative patterns.  Timmy Failure is an annoying little chowderhead, but his story is laugh out loud funny.  And who knows?  Maybe  Timmy's doofy ways will convince his young readers to smarten up some.  Couldn't hurt.
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