The Notebook of Doom #1: Rise of the Balloon Goons (A Branches Book)

This was a part of my grandson, Punkin's, Christmas gifts. I had never heard of the "Notebook of Doom" series and came across it while shopping on Amazon. I used the preview feature to take a look at the inside of the book and was blown away! I loved the illustrations and the fast paced story. It was perfect for a little boy. Punkin is 5 (a kindergartener) but reads at a 3rd grade level so I had no doubt that he would be able to understand and enjoy this book. He loves it. He reads it constantly and for the first week or so, fell asleep with it in his hands. I was disappointed that book 2 was not available on Amazon when I bought book 1, but I have since bought him two more books in the series and he is just as enthralled by those as he was by "Notebook of Doom". So, thank you Amazon for helping me find the perfect gift for my grandson that helped increase his love of reading.

I have been trying to introduce my son to longer "chapter books." Tried some classics, etc - however he kept losing interest. This book wound up doing the trick. Great mix of illustration and writing. Story was well paced for a kid and we ended it with him begging for the second in the series. On another note, the language is great for a young mind. No middle school type name calling or anything I thought was inappropriate for my son. Great job Mr. Cummings! You found the sweet spot!

Believe it or not, my son was punished with no TV for a week, and he doesn't watch that much TV to begin with. We got him several of these books on the Kindle device and it inspired him to draw and create his own book of his own creatures! As a mother and an artist you can't top that!

I gave this book to an 8 (almost 9) year old boy who is in the third grade--and reads on the low side of grade level. He opened it up and looked at it. Then he immediately started reading it and finished it before bedtime. I read it myself before giving it to him and really enjoyed it. The illustrations are very clever, and the text drew me in. Since the book was such a hit, I bought two sequels for his upcoming birthday.

We bought this as a gift for our 6 year old daughter. She loved it and had read it 4 times already! We have since purchased the next 3 books in the series and she loves them all!

My son hates to read. But these books he likes to read.

This is a great series for a child who knows how to read and is ready to move into something a little bit more than a story book. It has illustrations through out which my 8 year old absolutely loved!

What a cute series! This was suggested to us by a teacher-it’s definitely written in a style to keep your pre teen interested and engaged. Similar to the Mr Klutz and Erie Elementary series it has text but also some pictures. Great to get your reluctant reader to read

We read a different Scholastic books series first and needed another good "first chapter" series with lots of pictures to keep their attention.They LOVE the characters and guessing who is the baddie and/or what could happen next.Whenever possible we use the Kindle edition and broadcast it to our TV via our Amazon Firebox (via wireless projection) so that everyone can see the text and the pictures. Unfortunately not all the books are available for Amazon Kindle, so some books we had to buy as hard paper and we are running out of space in our bookshelves as we have sooo many books, so we prefer electronic copies. Electronic copies also allow us to share it onto their Amazon Fire tablets for kids.Again, LOVED by all of our kids and we have different ages and grasp of the world. It has gone so far, that our boys have us print out the monsters, trace them and then colour them in!

My granddaughters found this book rather disturbing . They were able to think about the young boy going to school alone and the problems he had at school .they are 7 and 4 . I decided to read it through quickly so they knew it has a happy ending ,we decided nto to read others in the series .the girls love the dragon masters books

I got this book and I was fixated. I could not stop reading it. This is a good book full of mystery. And you don't think it could get better but it does. Every story is so good. I would recommend this book to age 5-10yr olds because there are some tricky words but, I also recommend this to an older person that has just started reading. Once I finished this book I had to get the others and I can't WAIT for the 13th book. \(0_0)/

This is a disturbing book. The balloon goons are clown-esque sentient inflatables that sneak up on you, freeze if you look at them. The kid heads to class in a new town only to find his school is deserted, oh and not a school -it’s a hospital and his classroom is in the morgue. Just image after image that would creep out grownups.All that said, my 5 year old wants us to keep reading. I will proceed with caution given all the good reviews, but if we start to be up nights with scary dreams, I have no doubt they will have come from this book.

My son really loves this book. It's easy to read and has pictures on every page. We're in book 4 now. He likes the whole series.