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    Elvis and the Underdogs: Secrets, Secret Service, and Room Service
    Elvis and the Underdogs: Secrets, Secret Service, and Room Service
    Elvis and the Underdogs: Secrets, Secret Service, and Room Service
    Audiobook7 hours

    Elvis and the Underdogs: Secrets, Secret Service, and Room Service

    Written by Jenny Lee

    Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From Jenny Lee, writer on the Disney Channel show Shake It Up!, the number-one-rated kids' show in the country, this feel-good middle-grade novel is about a sickly boy whose life is turned upside down when he gets a therapy dog . . . who can talk!

    Benji Wendell Barnsworth is a small ten-year-old boy with a big personality. Born premature, Benji is sickly, accident-prone, and at the hospital so often he even has his own punch card. So when Benji wakes up one day from a particularly bad spell, his doctors take the radical step of suggesting he get a therapy dog. But when a massive crate arrives at Benji's house, out walks a two-hundred-pound Newfoundland who can talk! And boy, is he bossy.

    In this hilarious and heartwarming friendship story in the tradition of bestselling authors Gordon Korman and Carl Hiaasen, Elvis brings out the dog lover in the most surprising people and shows Benji that making new friends may not be as scary as he once thought.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 27, 2014
    ISBN9780062324306
    Author

    Jenny Lee

    Jenny Lee is a writer and producer on the new ABC Family sitcom Young & Hungry. She was also a writer and producer of the TBS sitcom Ground Floor and the Disney Channel's number-one-rated kids' show Shake It Up for all three seasons. The author of four humor essay books, Jenny is also the author of Elvis and the Underdogs. She lives in Los Angeles with her 110-pound Newfoundland, Doozy (and yes, it's a toss-up on who's walking whom every day).

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    • 5/5
      “This story starts in a hospital, but don’t freak out. No one died.” Benji feels almost at home in hospitals because he’s been in them so much. Born prematurely, he’s had many ailments, but he’s used to it at the ripe old age of ten. He even has a “personal” nurse named Dino who made him a punch card. After ten hospital visits, he gets a cool prize. He’s in the hospital again because he passed out. Benji faints a lot, but he usually wakes up seconds later. This time he didn’t, so Dr. Helen is more concerned and proceeds to ruin Benji’s fourth grade life by telling him he must wear a dorky green helmet to cushion future falls. Benji is scandalized. He is already the top target of the school’s worst bully, Billy Thompson, he doesn’t have any friends, and his Mom still calls him “My baby” in front of everyone. Isn’t there another alternative?Enter Parker Elvis Pembroke IV, Newfoundland extraordinaire, trained as the President’s – yes, THAT president, the White House one - perfect companion. Smart, bossy and full of himself, Elvis mistakenly becomes Benji’s therapy dog. And no ordinary therapy dog, at that. Elvis talks, in human, but only Benji can understand him.The humor seldom falters in Lee’s first book for children, especially in the voice of Benji, smart and articulate, small and wimpy, kind of heart. I laughed out loud more than once and cheered for Benji and his growing “pack.” Other characters are well-developed, too, including Benji’s Mom and friends, Taisy and Alexander, and of course, Elvis.The first conversation between Benji and Elvis does not go well. Though they both speak and hear English from one another, they have trouble understanding each other’s worlds and start arguing. Elvis, in his English-butler-like voice, finally says, “Perhaps we should start over. Clearly, we’ve gotten off on the wrong paw, you and I. I was born on a farm in Tennessee and have been trained for the last two years to be the president of the United States’s new dog.” Elvis is obviously a superior being!Taisy, super athlete and girlie-girl, spouts pearls of wisdom from her sport star father and goal-oriented outlook. “Less talking, more doing!” she says to the hesitant Benji and Alexander as the trio approaches the bully’s turf in search of Benji’s lucky lug nut. “… if he doesn’t have it, we’ll keep looking. But at least we can say we tried. Life is about trying!” And my favorite, Taisy’s motto when she doubts herself, “Breathe and believe. I know it sounds simple, but it works. You have to believe you can do anything, and that everything will work out how it’s supposed to. Just believe. Breathe and believe. Breath and believe.” Sage words, and ones that I would do well to heed in my own moments of doubt.Alexander’s photographic memory both helps and hinders, but it is his loyalty and budding sense of adventure that gives him substance. Explaining his boring, over-structured life to Benji, he, too, offers some astute words: “Having you guys think my freaky brain is useful for our super-awesome adventure? Well, this is stuff I only dreamed of doing.” Maybe we won’t find your lucky lug nut, he continues, but hopefully we will. “Did you know it’s a known fact that people who are optimists live longer?” His spirit helps Benji to realize that he needs an attitude adjustment. “Maybe I did need a pack of friends to give me a whole new perspective on the world.”One thing that disturbed me was Benji's assumption that Billy Thompson was a hopeless case and would end up in jail when he was older. Yes, Billy was a bully, but he did help save Benji’s life. The fact that he played music so well and was more sensitive than Benji ever thought bodes well for him. I would hope that, over time, and with continued respect from Benji and his friends, that Billy's behavior would improve. I don't like to assume that someone that young is already a lost cause.Benji’s Mom is overbearing, but understandably so; her child almost died as an infant. She is also hilarious, and though Benji doesn’t always appreciate being called “my baby” and kissed tens of times, he understands her: “Here’s what you need to know about my mom. She’s blond, she’s got big hair, and she’s loud. She tells people that she was a bear in her former life, because she likes to eat, she likes to sleep, and if you threatened any of her cubs, she’ll hunt you down and mess you up.” Her final words to Benji encapsulate key themes of love and courage and bring the novel home. Highly recommended, as Lee says in her dedication “for every kid who loves to laugh” – and, I would add, for every adult, too.