It's Rocket and Groot Book: Keep on Truckin'! and they are taking it to the next level as they continue their journey through the cosmos defeating baddies. Expect more zaniness, more chaos, more Rocket doodles, more "I am Groots", and tons of Veronica - the totally awesome butt-kicking tape dispenser! Oh, and expect another drawing or two from Groot!
Tom Angleberger artist-turned-writer. He is a columnist for the Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Virginia, and began work on his first book while in middle school. Tom is married to author-illustrator Cece Bell. He lives in Christianburg, Virginia.
I enjoyed this much more than the first book in the series, probably in the most part because I'm used to the format of it now, and I've grown to love the totally awesome tape dispenser. I have no idea how many books are planned in this series, but I want them all.
Oh, and of course actual middle graders will probably enjoy them too ;)
Rocket and Groot are off the strip mall planet and on the way back to Knowhere along with their super-intelligent tape dispenser named Veronica. Will they finally make it back and meet up with the Guardians of the Galaxy?
This is a quick read due to the amount of illustrations and short paragraphs. I think children who are transitioning into chapter books would appreciate it, as it's not too overwhelming. It's also great for reading out loud to younger readers. The story felt a little all over the place, but hilarious at times! We enjoyed the illustrations and the comical conversations between the three main characters.
The drawing instructions in the back for Groot added a nice touch. We're looking forward to reading the other volumes.
So much fun. I read it before I dove into writing mode to clear my mind of grown up creative killers, like work stress or whatever kind of stress. I have a new habit thanks to these awesome creative funny juvenile fiction books. Rocket, Groot, and totally awesome Tape Dispenser rock in book two. I laughed out loud and each time the outside world fell that much further away. Good stuff.
About half of this book is descriptions of sounds. It seems like a bad idea, right? Wrong! This is so much fun to read. And Groot sings karaoke. I could not control my laughter.
A chapter book which a very new reader could try with help. If that help knows a lot of sound effects then it would be entertaining.
I didn't dislike this book. There are two pages I really enjoyed. Just as the content of those was massively different to the rest of the story. I just didn't enjoy the repetitive nature of the story. The main characters are constantly in danger and there is also never any doubt that they will get out of it. I feel it could have been more creative in what danger they faced especially as the book hints at some of the options.
There is a lot of descriptions of sound in the book which makes me feel that an audiobook would work better for this story. The sound this reader made at the end of the story was "sigh".
The second installment of Rocket and Groot's adventures, penned by Tom Angleberger, follows much of the structure that made the first book, Planet Strip Mall, entertaining and attractive to readers who are just starting to take the risk of reading chapter books. Although it is a little over 250 pages long, there is a lot of repetitive text which will allow at-promise readers to feel comfortable with the length. Again, readers will marvel and use their imagination and context clues to figure out the different meanings they can infer from the font and size of the phrase "I am Groot!". Many more characters are introduced in this novel, and as always, there is a distinct font for each, making it easy for the reader to identify whose dialogue they are reading. This adventure takes Rocket, Groot, and Veronica into planet HappyHappyFunFun where computer driven cars are totally out of control and it's up to our heroes to figure out why and stop the mayhem. Readers will be invited to use their visualization skills as car chases, narrow escapes from death, and life-saving gadgets are described by their "sounds". A lesson in how to speak "truck-driver" adds to the fun and craziness of the adventure, as this is how the out-of-control-vehicles communicate with each other and our heroes. Funny and colorful illustrations add to the awesomeness of this read.
Angleberger, Tom Rocket and Groot: Keep on Truckin’ (Guardians of the Galaxy Book #2), 270 pages. Marvel, 2017. $14. Language: G (o swears); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.
Rocket and Groot are on their way back to the Guardians when they start to run out of fuel for their space ship (Rakk n’Ruin) and end up on a world they were trying to avoid called HappyHappyFunFun. Turns out self-driving cars have taken over the planet, and its supercomputer Big Mama wants to rule the world. If Rocket and Groot want to continue on their journey they must help.
This book is a fun read for reluctant or low readers in 2-3grade as it is filled with illustrations, cartoons, variations in font size, and crazy page layouts. Its funny, silly, and fast paced. (and Groot is still SO annoying!!) Its possible that there will be more movies in the Guardians of the Galaxy series, so this book should have a nice shelf life for another 5 years or so and would see circulation. That being said, it’s a total junk food book –just for silly and almost nonsensical.
This is a sequel to the Rocket and Groot book, Stranded on Planet Strip Mall. While I thought the first one was okay, I thought this one was actually a littler better than the first one. It's still a zany wacky adventure with Rocket and Groot, but it felt like the story had a bit more to it and the humor was more varied and I thought it was funnier than the first book.
Make no mistake, this is still a book that is a cross between a graphic novel and early chapter book, so it's not complex or anything like that. It is a lot of fun though and if you've got an elementary school aged child who likes Marvel, they're going to enjoy this. Since it's geared for that age that also means that the humor is trying to hit that age range. If you're not a big fan of that kind of humor you'll not enjoy this too much.
As I said I enjoyed this one more than the first, but it's not a particularly deep story and it's one of those rapidly paced books that there is always something new and absurd coming in after the most recent narrow escape from explosions, sharks, or giant beavers. It's a fun ride, but it's not all that deep. I enjoyed it and both my kids enjoyed it, but it also has its limitations.
Rocket and Groot and Veronica the awesome tape dispenser are out of gas and crash land on the planet HappyHappyFunFun. Bracing themselves against too many hugs, instead they find crazy vehicles trying to crash into them at every chance. Looks like they're going to have to save the day on HappyHappyFunFun before they can refuel and get back in space.
The premise for this is actually quite humorous. Instead of downloading the safe driving files the supercomputer on the planet accidentally downloaded tons of movies about racing cars and basically Fast and the Furious-type things (with reimagined names). The superheroes need to reprogram it. Rocket is his typical self, Groot is saving the day half the time and being goofy the other half, and Veronica is busy trying to keep them out of imminent doom while the boys argue. With a large font size, illustrations throughout, and a goofy story this is a great pick for reluctant readers.
Read this book as my son really liked it and wanted me to also read it. The book is aimed at around the 8-10 year old reader but I still enjoyed the story though. In particular I liked the style the book is written in, as each character speaks the text is in a different format, as an example all of Groot's words are in a flowing script that looks like tree trunks. I would recommend the book for those readers that are struggling to put some tone and emphasis in there reading, as the different text really helps bring out this side of the story.
This Children's book was hilarious! Each character had a specific personality and was assigned their own type font which made readying the story out loud a joy. The humor was enjoyable for adult and child. It's a story of three friends traveling through space and landing on a planet that was overrun with vehicles that were trying to attack them. The predicaments they are put in make for a wild and crazy ride.
This is a cute middle grade novel. Written in the form of Rocket's captain's log it reads kind of like a mash up between a journal and a play. It's written entirely in dialogue with some pictures as well. This book has a lot of humor and really had me laughing out loud quite a bit. Overall a quick read, I'm glad I picked this one up.
This was another quick fun light read. I liked it better than the first book. The art was better and the plot I felt was funnier. Gotta love Groot and Rocket and Veronica 😋
Kind silly and kinda fun like the first one. But even creativer. (You may want to go back and read my review for that one. It was pretty awesome!) (That joke was extremely meta. I’m sorry.)
My favorite character in the book was that tooth that didn’t have any customers until Groot,captain rocket and the super awesome tape dispenser came and saved HappyHappyFunFun.