Hautman, Pete. Slider.

Hautman, Pete. Slider. Candlewick Press  2017 278p $16.99    978-0-7636-9070-0  ms/jr  Realistic Fiction  E-BN     

David Miller can eat. He’s an average kid, but has a special talent --  despite his small size, he can put away an entire pizza himself in less than four minutes.  He is in awe of other food champions, which leads him to steal his mother’s credit card to purchase the half-eaten hot dog of one of his food-contest idols, Jooky Garafalo. But, he mixes up his decimal points, and ends up bidding $2,000 instead of $2 on his winning bid.  Along with his sidekicks, Cyn and Heyman, he concocts a plan to earn back the money: he will follow in the footsteps of his heroes and enter food-eating contests. 

David must train if he is to beat his competition, and so he eats heads of cabbages, entire pizzas, and bags full of hamburgers.  His training is complicated by his caring for his brother Mal who is autistic, but for whom that label is forbidden in the Miller home, plus the normal problems confronting 12-year-old boys on the brink of adolescence.

Pete Hautman tells David's hilarious story in the first-person voice. Despite the larger-than-life characters and implausible plot, the story rings true because of David’s family, friendships, and voice.     This is a hysterically funny book for middle-school and junior-high students.    

Summary: After “borrowing” his mother’s credit card and making a $2,000 mistake, David Miller enters food-eating contests to earn back the money he owes her before she learns the truth.

Humor-Fiction                                      --Lisa Teixeira