Title: I’m Bored
Author: Kenneth J. Sousa
Publisher: Brilliant Books Literary
ISBN: 978-1-64133-779-3
Pages: 30
Genre: Young Reading / Creative Writing
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Hollywood Book Reviews
In the shadow of Ferris Buehler’s Day Off, having an unexpected day of freedom, and with a twist of Look Who’s Talking with the voice of Bruce Willis in a baby’s body, I’m Bored is of a personified talking dog in this fanciful story, from the creative POV (Point-of-View) of a dog. Author Kenneth J. Sousa flaunts his literary originality creating this masterpiece tale of a few days in the life of a dog, as told by the dog himself.
Being bored in his yard with complaints about his dog house, the food he gets, the cat next door and more fleas than a Barnum and Bailey’s circus, this dog plans his escape when the gate is opened for a few moments. Darting out, exclaiming his freedom, he runs around the neighborhood and eventually wanders off into the woods, where things, well let’s just say, don’t go his way.
Being skunked, chased, hungry and wet, survival becomes his main objective. Not having the skills to find food in the wild, he seeks a garbage can to eat. Then, in a climatic sequence of events, he is captured by the dog catcher, brought to the pound, and scheduled to be put asleep – only to be saved by his owner at the very last moment. Yes, you may call that comment a spoiler alert, but the story is so terrifically layered with adventure, excitement, cunning manipulative dog-thinking, and totally bizarre dog-logic that events leading up to the culmination of the story needs to bring this story to a happy ending.
Written with a smoothly flowing narrative, along with a healthy dose of onomatopoeia whenever an action event occurs, makes this text ideal for younger readers to follow along the theme and enjoy the events. Although the story with the POV of the dog constitutes the majority of the book, there is a lengthy bio about the author. A few well-done illustrations top off the story allowing readers to better visualize the characters and events.
Creative, humorous and indeed unique, author Kenneth J. Sousa’s I’m Bored is a book which should be a must-have for all family libraries which bring up readers into their own skill-sets for enjoying books. Plus, it may just keep a child from thinking “the grass is greener outside of the house,” if he or she becomes bored themselves.