By Peter Hannan
Reviewed by Alice Gauntley
My Big Mouth is about Davis Delaware (who is not from Delaware), a ninth grader moving to a new town with his dad after his mother’s death. He wants to start fresh, make a few friends, doodle in his notebook, and most of all: blend in. But when he, nerd Edwin, and cool-girl Molly start a band, he starts getting noticed, and that to Davis means trouble. Butcher, the school bully, wants to be with Molly as well, and starts making Davis’ life hell. Meanwhile, Davis and his dad are trying to start a new life, which means Davis has to deal with his dad’s cooking disasters on top of everything else.
This book will make you laugh a lot, and the illustrations make you feel like you’re reading Davis’ notebook. Most of the songs are good —sometimes funny, sometimes angry. And the town is full of strange characters, like Ivan Brink, who looks like a vampire and faints on purpose, and Furry, an old man who has always dreamed of playing the saxophone.
But all in all, this book is…OK. Davis Delaware isn’t trying to be anything special, and it shows. He never confronts his bullies, doesn’t care that his band sounds bad, and doesn’t tell his dad when his poetry is singled out as being the best in the class. I kept wishing Davis would actually face Butcher instead of insulting him in his notebook. And for a comic story, the ending isn’t all that happy.
3/5