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Rocket and Groot by Tom Angleberger Book Review

Rocket and Groot: Stranded on Planet Strip Mall! by Tom Angleberger
Publisher: Marvel Press
Release Date: March 8, 2016

After battling deadly space piranhas, Rocket and Groot crash-land on a planet made up of strip malls, crazy robots, and killer toilets. It's an adventure that seems too crazy to believe, even if you are a suped-up Raccoon and a walking tree.

When I first showed this book to my husband, he snarled at it skeptically. As he should. Despite this PG-13 movie being spun for kids by Marvel, this comic book was certainly never meant for children. Rocket in particular is supposed to defy the idea of a cute fluffy woodland creature by having an extreme potty mouth, bad attitude, and a pension for killing. So it is just plain weird to see a kids chapter book with Rocket as the main character. How are they going to pull that off, I wondered.

Apparently, the way to make a potty mouthed character suitable for children is to remove the curse words, add some killer pottys (seriously...killer toilets), and a whole lot of fart jokes. On its own the book is your typical middle grade book with just enough pictures for the Wimpy Kid crowd and just enough text for the gatekeepers. It is funny as long as you enjoy a good fart joke and will appeal to fans of Angleberger's other books. This is fluff fiction to be sure and the kids are going to eat it up. But make no mistake, no matter how cute Rocket is in this book, Guardians of the Galaxy is not made for eight-year-old.


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