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The F.A.R.T Diaries #1
F.A.R.T.: Top Secret! No Kids Allowed!
When a young teen discovers a top-secret parenting manual, it’s kids versus grown-ups in this kooky, illustrated middle grade thriller with nonstop, seat-of-your-pants action that will delight fans of Jarrett Lerner and Stuart Gibbs.
When a tween boy [ Furious Popcorn] picks up what he thinks is a cookbook and finds a diabolical parenting manual, his world turns upside down. The Ultimate Guide to Hacking Your Kids was written by an organization called F.A.R.T. (Families Against Rotten Teens), a secret society of grizzled parents whose origins date back to antiquity.
FP is determined to get to the bottom of this, but when he begins investigating F.A.R.T., the manual goes missing, his parents deny knowing anything about any kind of book, and—maybe strangest of all—kids at school start listening to their parents and teachers. What kid would ever do that?
F.A.R.T. proves to be more than just some gassy acronym and parental rules and regulations when FP and the Only Onlys, his best friends since preschool, discover F.A.R.T.’s grand a brain modem that can turn kids into well-behaved zombies!
This wacky crew has no choice but to find out who’s behind the nefarious organization and save young people the world over from total F.A.R.T. domination!
When a tween boy [ Furious Popcorn] picks up what he thinks is a cookbook and finds a diabolical parenting manual, his world turns upside down. The Ultimate Guide to Hacking Your Kids was written by an organization called F.A.R.T. (Families Against Rotten Teens), a secret society of grizzled parents whose origins date back to antiquity.
FP is determined to get to the bottom of this, but when he begins investigating F.A.R.T., the manual goes missing, his parents deny knowing anything about any kind of book, and—maybe strangest of all—kids at school start listening to their parents and teachers. What kid would ever do that?
F.A.R.T. proves to be more than just some gassy acronym and parental rules and regulations when FP and the Only Onlys, his best friends since preschool, discover F.A.R.T.’s grand a brain modem that can turn kids into well-behaved zombies!
This wacky crew has no choice but to find out who’s behind the nefarious organization and save young people the world over from total F.A.R.T. domination!
144 pages, Hardcover
Published May 3, 2022
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Peter Bakalian
4 books3 followersPeter Bakalian is an Emmy winning, Writers Guild nominated screen writer who began as an intern at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. He later joined the production team of ThunderCats at Rankin/Bass Productions and went on to write for Curious George, The King & I, Santa, Baby!, Big & Small and Clifford’s Puppy Days. In addition to his family, he loves the same things he did as a kid – World’s Fairs, surfing, pinball and restoring bicycles. F.A.R.T.: TOP SECRET! NO KIDS ALLOWED! is his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 4, 2022
I read this book at my toddler’s bedtime and she giggled every time she heard fart. This book was interactive. The narrator spoke to readers and asked readers questions and inputs. Readers will not know the real names of four friends in this story but just their code names. The illustrations were just okay as well as the book cover, not my favorite. I enjoyed the adventures where one clues leading to the next. I liked a list of words that describes fart as well as the list of songs from the fart singer. The unexplained activities were interesting. Popcorn was in a tough situation to convince his friends to something that he only saw once and then it disappeared on him. Same with that author he spoke to about the fart manual then when he brought his friend back to hear the story, the author was nowhere to be found.
This book followed Popcorn, told in the first person point of view, as he reached out to Crabapple, specializing in journalism, to ask her aid in finding a place for a meeting with The Only Onlys. The other two members were Apricot, has access to science books and Banana, specializing in computers. Popcorn had a big story to share to the group. He informed them all that he had accidentally found his parents’ secret parenting manual called F.A.R.T. disguised as a cookbook. Popcorn couldn’t bring the manual to the meeting to show the group because there were warnings that the manual could be exploded remotely. Popcorn’s parents owned a healthy food store but Popcorn has a ViewTube channel for reviewing junk foods. He’s been hiding his pop tarts in his underwear but his parents are a member of F.A.R.T. so they probably knew all of his secret hiding places. Popcorn said when he attempted to make a video to ask his viewers about F.A.R.T., not only his video wasn’t uploaded but also his channel was wiped out. He convinced the Only Onlys to help him investigate about this parenting manual’s existence and to expose it.
F.A.R.T was a fast paced read and filled with adventures. The friends don’t always agree and teamwork was rocky sometimes. They worked out their differences and figured out how to work together for the common goal. The ending left open with a member of their Only Onlys missing. I’m guessing in book 2 the friends will attempt to find their missing friend. I liked how Crabapple gave a summary twice in the story of what’s been going on to confirm that everyone understood the same thing. I don’t love how Popcorn eventually obtained another copy of the fart manual. It kind of put all of the Only Onlys hard work goes to waste. I have only read one or two books from Diary of a Wimpy Kid and I’m thinking this book is somewhat in that category. My 10 year old loved Wimpy Kid series so I’m thinking maybe other 10 year olds will enjoy this book too.
xoxo, Jasmine at www.Howusefulitis.com for more details
Many thanks to SimonKids for the opportunity to read and review. Please be assured that my opinions are honest.
This book followed Popcorn, told in the first person point of view, as he reached out to Crabapple, specializing in journalism, to ask her aid in finding a place for a meeting with The Only Onlys. The other two members were Apricot, has access to science books and Banana, specializing in computers. Popcorn had a big story to share to the group. He informed them all that he had accidentally found his parents’ secret parenting manual called F.A.R.T. disguised as a cookbook. Popcorn couldn’t bring the manual to the meeting to show the group because there were warnings that the manual could be exploded remotely. Popcorn’s parents owned a healthy food store but Popcorn has a ViewTube channel for reviewing junk foods. He’s been hiding his pop tarts in his underwear but his parents are a member of F.A.R.T. so they probably knew all of his secret hiding places. Popcorn said when he attempted to make a video to ask his viewers about F.A.R.T., not only his video wasn’t uploaded but also his channel was wiped out. He convinced the Only Onlys to help him investigate about this parenting manual’s existence and to expose it.
F.A.R.T was a fast paced read and filled with adventures. The friends don’t always agree and teamwork was rocky sometimes. They worked out their differences and figured out how to work together for the common goal. The ending left open with a member of their Only Onlys missing. I’m guessing in book 2 the friends will attempt to find their missing friend. I liked how Crabapple gave a summary twice in the story of what’s been going on to confirm that everyone understood the same thing. I don’t love how Popcorn eventually obtained another copy of the fart manual. It kind of put all of the Only Onlys hard work goes to waste. I have only read one or two books from Diary of a Wimpy Kid and I’m thinking this book is somewhat in that category. My 10 year old loved Wimpy Kid series so I’m thinking maybe other 10 year olds will enjoy this book too.
xoxo, Jasmine at www.Howusefulitis.com for more details
Many thanks to SimonKids for the opportunity to read and review. Please be assured that my opinions are honest.
May 12, 2022
5/11/2022 V cute middle-grade read, with excellent design! Full review tk at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.
5/12/2022 Oh gosh, I didn't expect this to end on such a cliffhanger!
I also didn't expect this kind of visual design from a book aimed squarely at middle school kids. It's seriously delightful, a clever mix of mid-century modern with the more expected kids' doodles on graph paper. The illustrations throughout are entirely suited to the text, and even do readers the favor of repeating at key points so that we don't have to search back through the book for the relevant graphics. While Luke Lucas is credited for many of the interior illustrations, the overall concept and design was masterminded by Peter Bakalian himself: kudos thus to him for this excellently constructed package!
The accompanying story is silly and gross enough to appeal to middle schoolers while also containing that slight frisson of real-world danger that appeals to readers of all ages. Our narrator, codenamed Popcorn, is a YouT-- I'm sorry, ViewTuber whose obsession with junk food is at direct odds with his parents' ownership of a health food store. One day in the kitchen, he accidentally rips the cover of a cookbook, revealing a strange manual underneath. Unable to believe what he's seeing, he calls an emergency meeting of his best friends in order to relate what he's discovered, as well as what happened immediately after.
You see, F.A.R.T is the acronym for Families Against Rotten Teens, and they claim to be able to help any parent turn their snotty pre-adolescent into a model child. An aghast Popcorn paged through the book, discovering not only that it was rigged to blow if subject to unauthorized removal, but also that F.A.R.T employs a mysterious clean up crew to hide all traces of their existence. His friends (codenamed Apricot, Banana and Crabapple) are various shades of skeptical given his wild story and utter lack of proof. As they start to investigate, however, weird and weirder things keep happening. If F.A.R.T doesn't actually exist, as the entire world seems intent on telling them, then why do things and people keep vanishing after the kids look into them? And what will happen when one of the kids themselves seems to disappear into thin air?
This was an engaging, often humorous, sometimes sinister middle-grade novel that expertly toes the line between goofy and serious. I'm almost afraid to give it to my eldest kid for fear he'll start thinking that F.A.R.T and their parental brainwashing techniques are real, so convincingly is the book written. Then again, I'm pretty sure he knows I'm too much of a nonconformist myself to expect model behavior from him... or is that just part of my evil plan? (Not a great plan if his grades are any indicator, honestly.)
But that's enough dissing my poor kid for one review, lol. This book is a great addition to the library of anyone with an interest in being their own person, as well as in middle-grade investigative shenanigans. I'm looking forward to how the rest of the series (projected, I believe, to cover at least three books) pans out.
F.A.R.T.: Top Secret! No Kids Allowed! by Peter Bakalian was published May 3 2022 and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
5/12/2022 Oh gosh, I didn't expect this to end on such a cliffhanger!
I also didn't expect this kind of visual design from a book aimed squarely at middle school kids. It's seriously delightful, a clever mix of mid-century modern with the more expected kids' doodles on graph paper. The illustrations throughout are entirely suited to the text, and even do readers the favor of repeating at key points so that we don't have to search back through the book for the relevant graphics. While Luke Lucas is credited for many of the interior illustrations, the overall concept and design was masterminded by Peter Bakalian himself: kudos thus to him for this excellently constructed package!
The accompanying story is silly and gross enough to appeal to middle schoolers while also containing that slight frisson of real-world danger that appeals to readers of all ages. Our narrator, codenamed Popcorn, is a YouT-- I'm sorry, ViewTuber whose obsession with junk food is at direct odds with his parents' ownership of a health food store. One day in the kitchen, he accidentally rips the cover of a cookbook, revealing a strange manual underneath. Unable to believe what he's seeing, he calls an emergency meeting of his best friends in order to relate what he's discovered, as well as what happened immediately after.
You see, F.A.R.T is the acronym for Families Against Rotten Teens, and they claim to be able to help any parent turn their snotty pre-adolescent into a model child. An aghast Popcorn paged through the book, discovering not only that it was rigged to blow if subject to unauthorized removal, but also that F.A.R.T employs a mysterious clean up crew to hide all traces of their existence. His friends (codenamed Apricot, Banana and Crabapple) are various shades of skeptical given his wild story and utter lack of proof. As they start to investigate, however, weird and weirder things keep happening. If F.A.R.T doesn't actually exist, as the entire world seems intent on telling them, then why do things and people keep vanishing after the kids look into them? And what will happen when one of the kids themselves seems to disappear into thin air?
This was an engaging, often humorous, sometimes sinister middle-grade novel that expertly toes the line between goofy and serious. I'm almost afraid to give it to my eldest kid for fear he'll start thinking that F.A.R.T and their parental brainwashing techniques are real, so convincingly is the book written. Then again, I'm pretty sure he knows I'm too much of a nonconformist myself to expect model behavior from him... or is that just part of my evil plan? (Not a great plan if his grades are any indicator, honestly.)
But that's enough dissing my poor kid for one review, lol. This book is a great addition to the library of anyone with an interest in being their own person, as well as in middle-grade investigative shenanigans. I'm looking forward to how the rest of the series (projected, I believe, to cover at least three books) pans out.
F.A.R.T.: Top Secret! No Kids Allowed! by Peter Bakalian was published May 3 2022 and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!
April 22, 2022
A laugh out loud outrageous adventure with likeable characters and an engaging storyline. I loved the obstacles, the fast pace, and the unique skill set each character brought to the group.
I wanted more depth in spots and some space given for the characters to process some of the events, it overall found the read enjoyable and funny and I even learned some new fart references :)
I wanted more depth in spots and some space given for the characters to process some of the events, it overall found the read enjoyable and funny and I even learned some new fart references :)
October 29, 2022
E ARC provided by Edelweiss or Netgalley
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews