I really wanted to like The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward.
It seemed like a great set-up: a family of record breakers with 12 extraordinarily ridiculously gifted children and Arthur, the child who cannot break any world records. There's their coterie of unusual servants, including Sammy "the Spatula" Smith and Phoolendu Mahankali--the Panther-Man of Pndharpur, and the challenges by the ominous Goldwin family with their huge number of record breaking children (and Ruby, their ordinary child not interested in record-breaking). There are even evil clowns, dangerous dwarfs in league with grim giants, and a sinister plot--perhaps even a curse.
The book's enjoyment in record-breaking faded fairly fast for me and the complications of plot do not arise fast enough. But the main problem however was that the real motion of the book doesn't hit speed until the last 40 pages (2 chapters) of the book and then there is conspicuously no resolution so that we will be all jazzed up for book 2: War of the World Records.
Unlikely that I will read the second book.
I would be interested to know what my daughter Brynnen thought of the book, as she read it also. Perhaps she will blog it for letter W or she'll comment on it here...(HINT, HINT).
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