It's New! It's Improved! It's Terrible! - Softcover

Manes, Stephen

3.48

21 ratings by Goodreads

9780553156829: It's New! It's Improved! It's Terrible!

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553156829 ISBN 13: 9780553156829

Publisher: Skylark, 1989

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What happens when a commercial steps out of your TV set and into your life?

The ads on TV said the basketball shoes were New! IMPROVED! Amazing! NEAT! Arnold Schlemp just had to have them. He had to. That was all there was to it.

But by the end of his birthday he had a lot more to handle than fancy new shoes. He had big red blisters on his feet. He had a broken TV set in the living room. He had an obnoxious kid who had come through the TV screen from the shoe commercial--with no idea how to get home. And he had to find a way to explain it all to his parents--fast!

The author of Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! returns with the laugh-out-loud story of a boy who gets his wish--and wishes he could take it back.

(Want to act this out? An excerpt from this popular book is dramatized for performance in Aaron Shepard's Stories on Stage.)
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Praise for It's New! It's Improved! It's Terrible!

"An alien that looks like a boy and spouts a running patter of TV commercials . . . threatens to drive Arnold Schlemp and his buddies bonkers. . . pithy commentary on phony materialistic hype, well-laced with humor and insight . . . "
--Booklist

"An advertising-crazy kid who lives inside a sneaker commercial steps out of a TV set and turns Arnold Schlemp's life upside down. . . . The plot is very original and the writing is crisp. . . . an 'A' for imagination . . .
"--Zillions magazine

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6-- Arnold Schlemp covets Helicopter Shoes. The TV ads have convinced him that these expensive shoes will improve his basketball game, his social life, and his chance for real happiness. He receives the shoes for his birthday, but his joy soon turns to dismay as they give him blisters and start to fall apart. In disgust, he heaves a shoe at the TV, which, by coincidence, is showing the Helicopter Shoes advertisement. The TV explodes and, when the smoke clears, Will Flack, one of the cast in the commercial, is standing in Arnold's living room. Arnold faces the problem of hiding the broken TV from his parents and explaining the presence of the strange boy who spouts TV jingles and ads. By the time Arnold has discovered a way to get Will back into the TV, he has learned a good deal about deceptive advertising. This contemporary fantasy tries to incorporate pre-adolescents' fascination with brand-name products plus their gullibility to advertisements into a humorous story with a lesson. Unfortunately, the writing lacks development and polish. The dialogue is flat and simplistic, and the characters remain two-dimensional and predictable. While the story idea is clever, the lesson on being a prudent consumer is rather heavily presented. --Carrol McCarthy, Tower Hill School, Wilmington, Del.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

For his 12th birthday, Arnold gets his heart's desire, a pair of Helicopter Shoes, the latest in overpriced athletic footwear as advertised on TV. But his long hoped-for gift falls short of his expectations: he gets a killing blister and the tongue rips out of one of the shoes. Disgusted, Arnold heaves the broken sneaker at the TV screen when next he sees the Helicopter Shoes commercial. To his dismay, the screen shatters and Will, one of the kids in the ad, appears in Arnold's living room. Will can only spout commercial slogans and jingles at top volume, which gets Arnold in trouble at home and at school. For 24 hours, Arnold's life is a nightmare, until he and best friend Eddie figure out how to get Will back to his home in TV-land. This slim (98 pages) novel, with its one-note theme and compressed time frame, seems to be nothing more than a puffed-up short story. The richness of character and joyful exuberance evidenced in Manes's last work, The Obnoxious Jerks , is sadly lacking here. Ages 7-11.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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