Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Book Review: Julius Caesar Brown and the Green Gas Mystery by Ace Hansen

Julius Caesar Brown and the Green Gas Mystery
By Ace Hansen
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Published: July 9, 2013
ASIN: B00DV704KU

Amazon Synopsis:

When a mysterious green gas crisis breaks wind, the Global Air Group (GAG) offers a million-dollar prize to the first person to discover the cause. Julius Caesar Brown dreams of winning the cash so he can pay off Jake the Snake, the blackmailing bully who threatens to ruin his chances with the cutest girl in fifth grade. But Julius can barely pass a 
math test, let alone solve an international scientific mystery. What he needs is money. Fast. His mom volunteers him to help the Zombie Lady. Yeah. The crazy woman down the street who every kid knows eats boys’ brains. But Miss Crabtree’s no zombie. And winning the million-dollar prize may not be as far-fetched as Julius once thought.

Book Links
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My Thoughts:

Julius Caesar Brown and the Green Gas Mystery is a great book for children from grades three to six. It has all of the humour and fun that kids of that age are into. It’s also a fun read for adults who want to look at things from a child’s perspective again.

Ace Hansen is a big kid at heart. He has the ability to write from the perspective of a child, with their humour, fears and views on the world. It makes for a great bunch of laughs. I rooted for Julius and grew frustrated with him when his parents wouldn’t listen to him.

The pacing of this novel is excellent. There is plenty of action and the book just keeps moving. Julius is a quick thinking fellow and very savvy with the internet, using it to solve many of his problems. The problem is that trouble seems to follow him wherever he goes. Whether it’s clumsiness or bullies or his little brother, disaster is sure to follow.

I loved that Julius learned that older adults that seem to be behaving strangely aren’t necessarily dangerous, they just might have special needs that make them behave in a particular way and we need to take the time to get to know them to see that. I also liked that the story didn’t turn out quite the way Julius wanted it to, which made it realistic (cause that’s the way life usually is) but it had a really nice ending anyway.

I highly recommend this book for middle-grade and middle school students. I gave this book 5 stars out of 5.


Thank you to the author for providing a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

About the Author:

Ace Hansen doesn’t pass green gas. The author grew up in a household of boys and knows all about deadly stinkers, tree houses, and scary neighbors. Ace enjoys all kinds of creepy things and has been known to devour entire bags of worms* while writing outrageous fiction.

*Gummy, of course! What were you thinking?


Author Links
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