Slider by Pete Hautman

David can eat an entire sixteen-inch pepperoni pizza in four minutes and thirty-six seconds. Not bad. But he knows he can do better. In fact, he ll have to do better: he s going to compete in the Super Pigorino Bowl, the world s greatest pizza-eating contest, and he has to win it, because he borrowed his mom s credit card and accidentally spent $2,000 on it. So he really needs that prize money. Like, yesterday. As if training to be a competitive eater weren t enough, he s also got to keep an eye on his little brother, Mal (who, if the family believed in labels, would be labeled autistic, but they don t, so they just label him Mal). And don t even get started on the new weirdness going on between his two best friends, Cyn and HeyMan.

For the last few weeks, I've been reading “Slider” along with my boyfriend's 9-year-old (the book is something her 4th grade class is reading).

I can't recommend this book to anyone. It tries too hard to be a morality tale, a coming-of-age story, an overcoming-personal-obstacles story, a how-to on win-competitive eating contests, a how-to-steal-from-your-parents story, a younger-sibling-has-autism book, plus a bit of education on why it's okay to cross union picket lines. Oh and what-happens-when-your-two-best-friends-are-kinda-dating book.

The characters are not well-drawn or believable.

And what 14-year-old is allowed to go to his big sister's boyfriend's frat party with zero supervision (not even his sister)? Really????!!!

Anyway, a big Do Not Read recommendation from me.