Amy Axelrod, author

My Last Chance Brother
by Amy Axelrod
Illustrated by Jack E. Davis
Dutton Children's Books
ISBN 0-525-46659-2

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"Bugging a sibling is taken to new extremes in this tale of a long-suffering younger brother. Max's older brother, Gordon, wakes the little guy with a vigorous head rub on the morning of his birthday. Events deteriorate from there and Max begins to dream of taking the ultimate revenge. While making a wish as he blows out the candles of his birthday cake, he asks that Gordon be turned into an insect the following day. As Max outlines the various indignities that he suffers at the hands of this prankster, he takes secret satisfaction in imagining a winged, humiliated brother known as Bug Boy. This wacky tale culminates that evening when Gordon saves the arachnophobic Max from a spider in his bedroom and the younger boy contemplates giving his brother one last chance. Davis's exaggerated, goofy, and colorful cartoon illustrations intensify the zaniness of the story. The spiteful quality of Max's emotions is tempered by the well-matched humor in the text and pictures. There is definite boy appeal here, and siblings of either gender will recognize something of their own rivalries in this wildly exaggerated tale."

— School Library Journal

"Anyone with an annoying sibling will chortle as Max plots a birthday revenge by wishing that Gordon, his aggravating older brother, turn into a bug. Max gleefully visualizes Gordon reduced to insect size with wings and a stinger as payback for all the mean tricks: in the Chinese restaurant Max believes the fortune that Gordon reads aloud ("Beware of eating yellow snow") until people laugh. Of course, Mom tells Max to give his brother one last chance, and eventually he does. Max's predicament is a comedic foil for the kooky, exaggerated artwork that bounds off the page right into the reader's face.

— Booklist, American Library Assoc.

Download a Teacher's Guide (144K) for My Last Chance Brother or download Worksheet 1(6K) or Worksheet 2 (700KB). Downloads require Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be obtained at no charge at Adobe.com.