Going for Broke (Meg McKinlay, Walker Books, $12.95 pb, ISBN 9781921150616, May) ****

Nathan Foley is tired of getting ‘encouragement’ awards. He’s going to try anything to get some recognition. He’s ‘going for broke’ even if it kills him. This entry into Walker Books ‘Lightning Strikes’ series for less confident readers finds Nathan trying everything to be recognised as someone exceptional. Unfortunately his two friends Ronnie and Weasel are less than helpful.  Fortunately they have a copy of Amazing World Records to get some ideas from, if their ideas don’t kill Nathan first. They start with longest jump on a bicycle and when that doesn’t end with too many injuries they proceed through fastest furniture and longest run along a rail on a skateboard to the seriously gross things like cockroach eating. This is a quick easy read for those that lack confidence in their reading skills. It is definitely aimed at a male readership. The three boys are the main characters throughout the book. Every successive attempt at breaking a record gets them further and further into trouble. Going for Broke is good  straightforward adventure, featuring the kinds of things that boys of the age this is aimed at often get up to.

Chris McDonough is the store buyer for Dymocks Brisbane

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Tags: meg mckinlay