Wild Surprise

Phineas and Ferb Novelizations #3

by Helena Mayer, Jeff Marsh (Creator), Dan Povenmire (Creator)

Series Phineas and Ferb know that with only one hundred and four days of summer vacation, you’ve got to make every one count! Whether they’re building a rocket or discovering an ancient mummy, they’re dedicated to making each mind-numbing rotation of the earth into something really special. While their sister Candace tries fruitlessly to reveal their crazy endeavors to their mom and Perry the Platypus is saving the world from the dangerous Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Phineas and Ferb are filling their days with one adventure after another. Chapter Book #3: Wild Surprise
What better time to be creative than a birthday? With gifts at stake, Phineas and Ferb are at their best. First they surprise Candace by adding her head to Mt. Rushmore, and then they cook up an even BIGGER surprise for their mom’s birthday. With all these good intentions, what could possibly go wrong? Meanwhile, Dr. Doofenshmirtz has created a machine that will shrink everything he dislikes. Will this mean the end for Perry the Platypus?

Genres: Childrens

110 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2009

Reviews

[Rick Silva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Adaptation of two episodes of the Phineas and Ferb cartoon show. The Kiddo was a big fan of the show a couple years back.

While I enjoyed the show during one of our brief stints of actually having cable, somehow this novel version, focusing on a theme of birthdays, manages to bring out more of the cringe-worthy material than the really funny stuff.

The slower pacing that you get with reading prose really brings out how the show is generally the same plot every time. And the focus on Candace being constantly showed up by her brothers wears out its welcome a lot faster than it does in animated form.

That being said, there are still plenty of decent one-liners, and in spite of all she goes through, Candace does eventually get a happy ending (albeit without a lot of agency on her part) in both of the stories.

This is a good example of how not every concept works well in every medium.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Candace and her mum's birthday are celebrated in the 2 stories in this book. Candace has good and bad moments on her birthday but the story ends on a sweet moment. Phineas and Ferb love going big to celebrate their family members birthdays sometimes successfully other times not so but they do their best to not repeat their mistakes. Candace tries to do the personal touch - writing a song, making breakfast or home made card but gets sabotaged by mistake by her brothers, Phineas and Ferb. With Dr Doofenshmirtz crazy inventionsand Perry the Platypus battling to stop the havoc while incidentally coincidending with Phineas and Ferb's adventure of the day.

[Kelly Wickham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jecel, Arely, and Israel were all excited about reading this book because they remember watching the cartoon fondly, but it's terrible literature and painful to read. I will read it one more time with Marcos and send on home with him gladly.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this with my son.

[Maryam Khan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has two birthday stories one is for cadence and other one her mother ,
cadence get her huge monument and mother get a a beautiful breakfast and children concert.

[Cynthia Varady · Rating 5 out of 5]

My family loves Phineas and Ferb, the cartoon so much, we picked up one of the chapter books based on the T.V. show. We were expecting it to be ho-hum, not that our 6-year-old son would notice, but we were surprised by the great retelling of two of the episodes. Wild Surprise adapted by Helena Mayer is fantastic. Mayer captures the nuances that make Phineas and Ferb an engaging and witty and translates it perfectly to a readable format. All of the characters, their personalities, secrets, and motivations are present in this short chapter book. Adaptations are an art, and Meyer does an impeccable job.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our girls love Phineas and Ferb on tv, so when they asked for this book at their school book fair, I relented. They had seen the episodes described in the book (two episodes in the book), but they still really enjoyed listening to the stories and they were quick reads. Probably best suited for older children who are starting to read chapter books. This book has two stories about birthdays.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kid loves Phineas and Ferb, so I got him some of these novelizations for Christmas. It actually wasn't too bad in terms of writing, which was surprising. It included lots of good vocabulary that would challenge some kids' comfort level. I had to give definitions to several words while I was reading, which is something I don't mind doing as long as it doesn't interrupt the story too much.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

My brother loved this, and to be quite honest, I have a cartoon crush on Ferb... so I liked this book too.

[Hareem]

as based on the book

[Maggie Needham]

Phineas and Ferb are always fun. =]