Lawn Boy Returns

Author: Gary Paulsen
Recommended Age: 10+
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
ISBN-10: 0385746628
ISBN-13: 978-0385746625
Year Published: 2010
No. Pages: 112
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Main Character Gender: Male
Read & Reviewed by: Robert



Lawn Boy inherited his grandfather's riding mower and started a lawn mowing service. With the help of a hippie stockbroker, Lawn Boy turned his earnings into a corporate empire. This book, Lawn Boy Returns, deals with what happens after he becomes rich and famous. He is hounded by tax agents, threatened by mobsters and his low life cousin Zed. Also Lawn Boy is stressed out having to deal with more employees and all the other issues with being a big business owner.

This book is written in first person and is the sequel to Lawn Boy. First person narrative let me get into Lawn Boy's head so I could understand what he was thinking and feeling. This was really helpful when it came to how he felt about Joey Pow's cousin, Zed. Joey Pow is the wrestler Lawn Boy sponsors with his millions and Zed is Joey's long lost cousin who needs to shower more frequently and leaves a lot to be desired in the manners department. Zed decides to live in his R.V. on Lawn Boy's driveway and becomes an unwelcome guest. Gary Paulsen uses Zed to introduce teenage boy humour about bodily functions. For example, “He [Zed] leaned back, farted once, burped twice and gave a mighty scratch in an area most parents urge toddlers not to touch in public.” This crude humour will appeal to boys in particular and it had me laughing throughout the book.

Paulsen has created such crazy characters, that I wanted to read more just to see what they were up to. I think that Lawn boy's grandmother is the funniest and most nutty of all the characters. What makes her particularly quirky is that she'll be talking about Joey's fight and two seconds later she is talking about hormones. Her thoughts seem to ping-pong throughout the novel. Lawn Boy is aware that his grandmother makes no sense at times and you share that opinion of her as the reader. I was never sure what she'd say next and she constantly surprised me which was refreshing. It is amazing that Paulsen can write dialogue that is so believable even though each speaker is remarkably different.

This book was a fast fun and easy read for me but I took my time to notice the description in Gary Paulsen's writing. I even reread a couple of chapters over after I was done the book because I loved the humorous and action-packed writing so much. Something crazy is always happening because the characters are so nutty that they unpredictable.

Paulsen left me wondering about Lawn Boy's future at the end of the chapter. I wanted to know what he would do next. I hope there will be another book and recommend this book to anyone who wants a good laugh and a fast read.