Who Put That Hair In My Toothbrush? (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
Megin is twelve and her older brother Greg is fourteen, and they loathe and despise each other.Megin is a tomboy whose greatest passion is ice hockey. Greg's main goal in life is to win the heart of Jennifer Wade, who barely acknowledges his existence. But despite their busy lives, these two manage to spend plenty of time tormenting and sabotaging each other.The kids' parents are completely clueless about the level of animosity between their two oldest children (there's a much younger brother named Toddie) and in fact, their mother hypnotizes herself every afternoon to cope with the stress. The kids are used to this benign neglect, so when Megin finds a cockroach and lets it into Greg's room, and her parents discover that her own room is utterly filthy and insist that she clean it up, Megin is furious.Megin's one redeeming trait is her love and respect for Emilie, an 89-year-old nursing home resident she meets on her way home from school. Emilie is full of wild stories of her youth, and she and Megin are both hockey fans.Megin and to a lesser extent Greg are not particularly likable, but the secondary characters add depth and sparkle to the story. Greg's best friend is Eddie Valducci, a karate-obsessed ball of energy who is madly in love with Zoe Miranda, a girl in Megin's class who has just moved to their Pennsylvania town from California and is of course the essence of glamour and sophistication. Megin is at first disgusted by and jealous of Zoe due to her own best friend Sue Ann's rather over-the-top admiration for The Girl From California, but gradually she sees that Zoe is capable of pulling off some pretty smooth pranks herself and comes to like her.Greg and Megin's relationship continues to deteriorate. Megin is driven to fake appendicitis so she can watch a Wayne Gretzky special on TV instead of taking Toddie to the library for story hour, and Greg has to do it. Unfortunately, Megin's acting is too convincing for her own good and she is taken to the hospital.The next day, defying doctor's orders, Megin sneaks out of the house to go play hockey at the lake, and Greg tells everyone that she is not supposed to be there. Consequently Megin is not picked for a team, and in a blind rage she smashes the egg that Greg had been carrying around as a sex-ed project; you know the old Egg Baby experiment. Greg retaliates by throwing Megin's favorite hockey stick, autographed by Gretzky himself, far out into the middle of the lake.Finally, the dimwitted parents see how bad things have gotten between the siblings and crack down. Megin does not react well to this, and she is upset even more when she learns that her beloved Emilie has died. So Megin runs away.Greg feels very guilty about his sister's disappearance, and that night he goes to the lake to try and retrieve her hockey stick from the thin ice near the center. Of course he breaks through the ice, but Megin, who had not gone very far at all and has been hiding in the historic house near the lake, hears him struggling and knows she has to save him.The book ends fairly predictably, and while Greg and Megin weren't very likable, there is something about this book that I really liked. Spinelli has an excellent ear for dialogue, and he shines when writing the alternating first-person chapters told by Greg and Megin. He allows his main characters to fight dirty until it's almost too late, then he forces them to confront the consequences of their hatred and make things right.And he does it with great humor and good old-fashioned slapstick. Clearly he remembers what it was like to be a kid, and he knows what kids like to read.
Si ha habido un perjudicado con toda la renovación (positiva, eso sí) del sector de literatura juvenil en los últimos años, esa ha sido la tendencia a las colecciones temáticas. Poco antes de que Harry Potter llegase para quedarse, motivando la creación de sagas y ediciones en tapas duras, vivimos una época de esplendor en la que las editoriales apostaban por novelas de chicas, de terror e incluso humor, siempre bajo etiquetas y con estilos corporativos. Precisamente de la extinguida colección de Montena de este género nos quedan hoy Guerra en familia y Crash, ambos del escritor norteamericano Jerry Spinelli. Spinelli podría formar parte de la larga lista de autores extranjeros que no acaban de calar en nuestro país, o que quizá esperan el momento apropiado. Nacido en 1941 en Pensilvania (Estados Unidos), ha escrito una buena lista de libros para jóvenes de todas las temáticas. Después de que varios libros se descatalogasen en España todavía nos quedan dos, ¿Quién es ella? (Alfaguara) y Misha (EntreLibros), aunque, como buenos arqueólogos literarios que somos, es nuestra obligación desenterrar y devolver la memoria a dos de sus grandes obras que hoy han caído en el olvido. ---> Lee la reseña completa y más artículos en http://www.eltemplodelasmilpuertas.com
What do You think about Who Put That Hair In My Toothbrush? (2000)?
I am familiar with Jerry Spinelli and his books, so I decided to give Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush? a try, despite its un-assuring title. I am glad I did not judge the book in that way because I ended up enjoying WPTHMT to a surprising level. It was such an amazing, hilarious, inspirational book that five stars was an understatement. I enjoyed how Megin and Greg had their own nicknames for each other. It was surprising that I knew the book so well in the beginning that when I first heard Greg mention 'Megamouth' I knew it was Megin, and when Megin labeled her brother 'Grosso' it was easily Greg. It also helped, however, that they both mentioned Toddie, their little brother. I think that if a reader understands the book very well in the beginning of the story already, then the author must be a good one to describe it so much and yet so subtly.This brother-sister rivalry is best explained with different perspectives, which is just what Spinelli did. The format earned WPTHMT another half-star, and then some. It also gave me the idea to do the same type of thing: different perspectives, or first-person with a bunch of people. Funny thing is, Spinelli always gives me an idea: either the theme of a book, the font of a book, the format of a book, the name of a book! If Spinelli had planned to be inspirational, he sure reached his goal.I also liked how in the end, all the story came together. I thought that Jennifer,Valducci, Zoey, Ellie, and the doughnuts were all just extras. But it turns out they were all useful. I especially found myself loving how Zoey and 'Toddsie' were 'planning their wedding already.' A must-read and a must-have for your library shelf!
—Evy
This book is not about a hair in a toothbrush. It is about a kid who likes a girl but she moved. He later starters to fall in love with his other friend. This book is really funny.Bronson connors My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
—Bronson
The adventures of Megamouth and El Grosso... This is probably Jerry Spinelli's best book, and one I read over and over as a child/young teen. The story is real, relatable, and hilarious, as well as touching and heartfelt.And, the story is a "he said, she said", going back and forth from siblings Greg and Megan's points of view, so that no character is one sided, one dimensional. Megan and Greg, on the cusp of adolescence, can't seem to get past their own petty feuding with each-other, and unfortunately for their family and friends, bring everyone down with them!But, when Megan suffers a tragedy, will Greg realize how much he really loves "Megamouth", and would do anything to protect her? Will Megan realize how truly important her family is to her, realize she's truly loved, not just "the middle child"?Anyone between the ages of 12 and 17 should read this story, and honestly-- if you're a parent and have two kids who can't seem to get along, this book might make you feel better. :) (They should completely make this into a movie.)
—Carla Peele
