“A puppy will fix everything.
A boring new house?
Boring house + puppy = adventure!
An attacking squirrel?
Evil squirrel + puppy = a squirrel-battle extraordinaire!
A daredevil brother who zooms into constant peril?
Rowdy sibling + puppy = calm days snuggling their furry friend!
What could possibly go wrong?
When Marcus’s dog dreams finally come true, something is indeed terribly wrong. Phooey Kerflooey is eighteen pounds larger than expected. She will only eat organic lunch meat and drink from a china teacup. Plus, she is terrified of absolutely everything, including his brother’s wheelchair and that troublesome squirrel.
How can Marcus find “perfect peace,” like in Isaiah 26:3, when God has given him a whole lot of chaos?
Through a raucous tornado of personal growth, the boys and Phooey work together to save the day. But when the dust (and squirrel poo) settles, can they convince Dad and Mom to let them keep their puppy princess?”
Series: Book #1 in the “Phooey Kerflooey” series for middle-grade readers. The author also has younger reader versions of this book broken into two shorter stories.
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are read, mentioned, & thought over; Marcus wants to have the perfect peace that Isaiah 26:3 talks about; A couple prayers; Talks about God, His peace, His plans, not changing others from how God made them, & trusting God; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Marcus reads a book that is about David and Goliath; *Spoilers* Towards the end, Marcus tries to trust God, but doesn’t think it helps when it gets even more chaotic in their home; The verse about perfect peace comes back to his mind, he wonders if that peace can be his if he turned his eyes away from the chaos and focused on his Master instead, & focuses on Him instead of the chaos *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of God, His peace, & His plans; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of church, church going, Sunday school, & a Sunday school lesson; A couple mentions of the four horsemen; At the end, there is a bonus section with a true story with many Scriptures shared and how everyone is valuable to God;
*Note: Marcus’ great aunt shouts the Lord’s name loudly on several occasions while dealing with a squirrel (while not written out, Marcus adds that she “must have been praying…a lot.”); Marcus’ dad names their enemy-squirrel “Rasputin” after the Russian mystic that was really hard to get rid of; A few mentions of aliens; A mention of Santa; A mention of Yeti myths.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘gah’ and five forms of ‘wimp’; A couple lies (by Marcus and he feels as if his chest is tight after saying them); A fire & Trying to put it out (up to semi-detailed); Blood/Bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Marcus feels responsible and guilt for his brother’s injury (because Conner snuck out at night and Marcus slept through it; *Spoiler* Towards the end, Marcus recalls his father telling him that he is not to blame & Marcus tries to focus on having God’s peace even in the chaos of life *End of Spoiler*); Because of his brother being reckless, Marcus writes down the possible dangers for each of their plans before moving forward or not with it; Marcus is concerned about his brother or the puppy getting hurt; Conner comments about breaking his leg again so his mom will let him keep the puppy; A puppy is attacked and bitten by a squirrel multiple times (causing pain and distress for the puppy, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of Marcus’ brother (Conner) sneaking out one night to go “adventuring” and ending up breaking his back (which caused spinal code damage and he can’t feel his legs); Mentions of fires, house fires, & smoke; Mentions of injuries, stitches, pain, blood/bleeding, throwing up, & fainting; Mentions of urine & poop; A few mentions of a boy taunting Conner & his dares (which lead to Conner breaking a bone once); A couple mentions of poisons & being poisoned; A couple mentions of cigarette smoke; A couple mentions of a hunter; A mention of a rumored drowning; A mention of a kitten being dumped;
*Note: Marcus and Conner hide or throw away Phooey-the-Puppy’s girly toys and items because Conner wants a fierce dog (Marcus wonders a couple times about why they need a fierce dog, but because Conner wants one, Marcus tries to make Phooey became that); Because of this, a friend tells Marcus that he can’t change Conner or Phooey from how God made them; Conner says Shakespeare insults; Mentions of Rube Goldberg machines; Mentions of Sasquatch; A couple mentions of brand names & pop culture (Birkenstocks & King Kong); A mention of PTSD; A mention of Frankenstein.
Sexual Content- N/A.
-Marcus, age 12
P.O.V. of Marcus
195 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
As someone who grew up in a house of only daughters, this book was completely how I expect a boys/sons only household to be: complete and utter chaos. I mean this in a nice way because I did overall enjoy the story, but my goodness, it was chaotic!
Bless Marcus’ heart—he’s a worrier and determined to make his parents less stressed and keep his daredevil little brother out of more trouble; his plans of having peace in their lives goes awry when a cowardly (but cute) puppy and a very destructive squirrel enters into the picture. I was ready to donate to a GoFundMe to get rid of that awful squirrel!
As a dog lover, I loved Phooey, but I do wish the family would have been a little more prepared for a puppy and all that entails. Thankfully there’s good lessons about not changing someone (or some puppy) to your wants and expectations, but there were a few things that made me cringe and panic that there would be an emergency vet appointment in this book.
Overall, it was a very crazy story, but also entertaining at times too. I think boys and some girls would enjoy it. :)
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free from the Author for this honest review.
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