Chocolate Fever,   ISBN:9780142405956

Customer Rating: 

I listened to Chocolate Fever as an audiobook with my kids...and I was eager for it to end. It seems like a book that was written decades ago, when times were simpler, people were one dimensional, and there weren't very many choices for excellent children's literature. (In fairness, the book was written 30+ years ago). My 12 year old says the story was "too short, generic and predictable."

One thing that troubled me was that the adults in the story (the parents, the hospital staff, etc.) did not show much consideration for the boy's feelings while he was undergoing very frightening changes due to the chocolate fever. And although the boy lived in an average family with no evidence of disfunction, he did not turn to his parents for help when he was scared. Instead, he ran away and trusted a stranger, a truck driver with whom he hitchhiked. The behavior of the characters did not ring true to me. And yes, I understand that this story is supposed to be a fantasy -- with chocolate fever being the key element -- but the way the characters behave should still be consistent with how normal people would act *if* this abnormal event happened.

I probably would have liked this book if I had read it 30 years ago when I was a kid. However, there are better choices available these days.

Customer Rating: 

I caught chocolate fever as soon as I read the first page! A very excyting yet realistic fiction.

Customer Rating: 

This book was easy to find on Amazon and with Amazon Prime shipping, it was shipped to me in two days.

Customer Rating: 

I bought this book to add to my classroom library. I remembered it from my days in elementary school and thought my students would really enjoy it!

Customer Rating: 

When I was a kid I watched the ABC Weekend Special nearly every Saturday morning. And I remember one cartoon it featured called CHOCOLATE FEVER. It was a wonderful cartoon and very enjoyable. Now as an adult I've read the book on which it was based and wish I had read it at the same young age at which I had watched the delightful cartoon. For the book is at least equally delightful.

This little book is everything you could possibly need for an exciting, zany, and even witty kid's story, particularly for kids who are just starting to read "chapter books". Featuring a somewhat normal young boy (normal in every aspect except his diet) who, because of an insatiable chocolate addiction, develops chocolate spots all over his body, CHOCOLATE FEVER, throws the reader into a series of adventurous twists and turns that never gets boring and always keeps the reader wondering what in the world will happen next...right down to the very last page!

Every children's book of this kind needs a very careful mixture -- a delicate balance, if you will -- of the zany over-the-top kind of scenarios and the more down-to-earth situations. And, perhaps most difficult of all, the author has to be able to present these things to the kids so that the kids reading this book will know which is which. I think Robert Kimmel Smith has succeeded in doing this. CHOCOLATE FEVER has my stamp of approval all over it.