Nose Prints? Poems about Pooches.

I am thinking of Nose Prints as a title for a poetry collection ALL about dogs. I love this image and it would be used both as a jacket flap illustration as well as an interior.

Your rhyming submissions might go on the jacket flap and are being accepted through September 1, 2011. The rhyme should represent what dogs mean to us humans, something along the line of man's best friend... FUNNY, THOUGHTFUL, INTERESTING...

Send a four or eight line rhyme to me at justin@justinmatott.com or post it on the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Works-of-Justin-Matott/213624096290?ref=ts (don't forget to LIKE the page on Facebook if you haven't) and if your poem is used you will receive credit on the acknowledgement page (no further remuneration, come on folks, we are doing this for fun, poetry doesn't make any money...) and an autographed book if and when it publishes.

Meanwhile, keep watching for Nitwittles poems here on my blog as well (chime in anytime your thoughts), and soon the book will be available on your ereaders and traditionally too!

BIG BAD MOTORCYCLE MAN (coming soon in Nitwittles)

My Dad was an English Professor and often did editing on my work as I developed it. He was able, generally, to read my work as he did many, many, many college students, with a sense of arms-length detachment, an editorial eye and red pen and could be constructively brutal about my writing.

He pulled no punches if he didn't like it, which I really appreciated and miss a lot! He also carefully doled out praise (usually with a little caveat) but I always knew he was in my corner, just wanting me to put out the very best work I was capable of. It was amazing to me to see my own dad become all business about my work, putting aside our relationship with objectivity.

All this to say my dad LOVED this poem. He told me it was his favorite poem of ALL of the poems I had written and he had reviewed at the time, which exceeded five hundred. SO, I have always remembered most the conversation we had about The BIG Bad Motorcycle Man that I based this poem on. I remember the way he laughed, the way we laughed. As a Dad, I know the only thing I want more than my own success is to watch my son's successes. I want more for them than I do for myself and my dad felt the very same way.

THIS POEM WAS WRITTEN WHILE WATCHING SOME GENTLEMEN AT MY LOCAL STARBUCKS, WHO - LIKE ME, RIDE HARLEY MOTORCYCLES.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE POEM BELOW TO BLOW IT UP ENOUGH TO READ IT. I HAVEN'T YET FIGURED OUT HOW TO SAVE THE FILE FROM THE MANUSCRIPT LARGE ENOUGH...

What have you watched today that you could sit down and write a poem or short story about?

PWOWIE, we will miss you!

A family is made of members who fit roles and sometimes establish new roles. In our family there were and are people and animals who acted like people.

In my house was a little cat.
She had no tail (manx).
She had three teeth (knocked most of them out).
She was 12 years old which in people years is 12 x 6 = 72.
She was a fun little buddy who loved to chase little toy mice and play hide n seek around our house.
She was sick when she was a kitten and never truly got over it, but even though a challenge, just a delightful little creature.
Her name began as Baby Ruth, then she took on many nicknames, the two that she was known far and wide by are P-Dubs and Pwowie.
She has her own facebook page made by one of my sons and has followers from Universities across the land. Join in https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2385978946
Pwowie, became a legend. She was everyone's friend and would sit in any available lap. I am writing this because Pwowie was important to me, my family, my friends and the subject of many stories I have told over the years in my school visits.
It will be hard not having this little creature of mine sitting right in the middle of the floor, always in the way and always ready for anything.
Part of loving is losing and I have just lost one of my favorite little friends.
Rather than be too sad, I celebrate her place in my life for 12 years!
Pwowie, you were an original!
You were awesome in many ways and I'm glad we knew each other.

My very favorite memory of you was when Snickers was sick and dying and how you would lie on top of her and purr, desperately trying to heal her with your love. For hours we would pass the laundry room where Snickers was just too sick to get up. Her, wrapped in a blanket on her dog bed, and you perched on her shoulder.
It was amazing to see how much you loved your dog.
For weeks after Snickers was gone you looked for her. We humans can and do learn a lot from you and your kind.
I know you can't read, but perhaps now you are back with our beloved Snickers and she is reading to you. Now there was a dog!

I remember when I was eight years old coming home from church in mom's car and asking mom, "Mom, will heaven have dogs and cats?" Mom knowing how much my animals meant to me said, "Honey, everything you love here God will give you there." So that means I will see you again.

Rest in peace little Pwowie the P-Dub. I will always miss you.

A chapter from the next Gabriel Peters' book

What do you think of the following chapter? Would love some feedback...

GABRIEL PETERS AND THE SECRET DETECTIVE
BROTHERHOOD

Stories from the crawlspace clubhouse
Book 4 in the “GP” series



CHAPTER 6
THE GROSS-RIE STORE


It was the hottest day of summer so far. Mom said it would probably hit ninety-five degrees by noon and keep on climbing. It would have been a good day to just hang out at the lake where we could fish and jump in and out of the water and swim to the middle of the lake to cool off on the raft and later spend some time up in the tree house where the shade is good, but the guys and I had been planning our bike ride downtown for over a week and this time of year there weren’t any cool days, so we figured we would go ahead and tough it out.
We met down at Tunnel Number One and then took our bikes down the railroad tracks, bumping along in the middle on the railroad ties and talking about our plan if we saw a train coming. If we heard a train whistle coming from the south, fast action was required since we lived way out of town the train really picked up speed until it slowed for town.
Butch said, “Remember that time we were cruising the ties and that train came out of nowhere and was barreling down behind us?” We all started chiming in about what we each remembered most about it.
We were over Tunnel Number Three which is the tunnel that has the really, really steep trail leading up to the tracks and the only way off the track was pitching it down the hill. I pulled off the railroad tracks first, pointing my bike down the trail and rode my stingray down the thin, bumpy dirt trail along the tunnel and ended up riding it all the way down, hitting the jump at the bottom, getting great air and looking oh so cool and then cruising down in the grassy valley, making it look so easy and so did Butch, who was trailing right behind me. But Tony panicked halfway down the trail he pulled his front wheel up too high then tumbled down the hill with his bike bouncing along behind him, the bike barely missing him as it passed him and hurled itself bouncing off the side of the cliff and splashing down into the murky water and Tony was rolling along after it when he went sideways over the embankment falling about fifteen feet into the muddy water below landing almost right on top of his bike.
Butch and I were laughing so hard that it made Tony mad and he yanked his bike out of the water and pushed it home and didn’t talk to us for a couple days. But a few nights later we were all down at the streetlight and he showed up to play hide-n-seek like nothing had ever happened.
We swapped stories like that as we bumped along the tracks, laughing and practicing our spitting distances. It was the long way to where we were headed, but we were going the fun way. Then we pulled onto the road that ran along the railroad tracks through most of town.
We had ridden the ties one time through town and a police officer pulled up behind us with his lights on and everything. He made us all sit next to the tracks for a long time while he gave us a lecture about the dangers of being on the tracks and told us it was illegal to ride the ties in the middle of the tracks like that and if he ever saw us doing that again he would call our mothers. We all promised never to ride downtown on the tracks like that again, but we didn’t promise not to way out in the country where we were sure it wasn’t even illegal.
So we all got off of our bikes about halfway through town and put playing cards in our spokes. There was a part of downtown that was surrounded by tall buildings and when you rode through there with cards in your spokes it sounded like you were in a real life motorcycle gang. We got back on our bikes and rode alongside the railroad tracks on the road downtown.
“H-Hey since w-w-we are g-going to the grocery store, should w-we do a Gross-Rie d-dare off?” Andy asked excitedly.
“NO WAY LAMO! My mom is working today! You want free bakery stuff or not?” Tony barked.
Andy weaved his bike toward Tony’s like he was going to run him off the road, “G-Geez, don’t g-get your underwear in a kn-knot, I was j-just saying…”
“Guys! Cut it out!” I yelled over the loud sound of their shouting and the cards in my spokes that were echoing off the tall buildings along the tracks.
We talked about staging a grocery store dare-off soon when we were up in the tree house last, but never decided on when. We called it a GROSS-RIE STORE DARE OFF since the ideas we had were so disgusting.
The way it works is you would walk down the aisle and choose something the other guy had to eat AND he had to pay for it, but your turn was coming so you had to decide if you were going to be brutal which meant the next time you were in for it or if you just picked stuff that wasn’t so bad, but not what a normal person would choose. The rule of the game was that you had to eat every bite of the items chosen for you either until it was gone or until it made you puke.
Everyone put their name in a hat, and one by one the names were pulled out and the person holding your name would be choosing your lunch. Andy and I always prayed we would get each other because we were best friends and would go easy on each other. We knew what the other liked and we would make combinations that might sound gross to some people but we knew each other well enough to know it would be okay.
Like the time I made Andy eat beef jerky and marshmallows. He was supposed to smash them up together according to the game, but by the time he opened up his bags everyone was so focused on their own junk they didn’t even notice that he was eating them separately. That is the best part about being best friends, you know what your buddy likes most and Beef Jerky and Marshmallows were what Andy liked most. He picked fried chicken gizzards and wintergreen Certs for me. Butch started to complain because he also knew that I always got chicken gizzards when we went to Safeway, but eating them with Wintergreen Certs wasn’t something I did and the bad thing was Butch watched me like a hawk, so I had to mix them and it was pretty gross. But even so, Andy was doing me a favor by picking my favorites and then I didn’t feel like I had wasted my own money on junk I didn’t like.
Sometimes you would choose something that was yummy like a Snickers bar, but then the person that was going to eat it had to wrap it in sauerkraut or dip it in pickle juice or something like that. Other Gross-rie dare-offs were; a loaf of white Wonderbread soaked in the juice of canned red beets until it was so soggy you had to eat it with a spoon and that was after you ate all the cold, yucky beets or three bananas smashed up and mixed with all of the little packets of stuff you got back by the deli, which would include hot, red peppers, salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, relish, hot sauce, sugar, creamer, salad dressing, mayonnaise and the worst thing ever made to eat by anyone; Miracle whip.
One time I had to eat a stale fruitcake that was in the bargain bin for fifty cents soaked in ketchup, yellow mustard and pickle relish, the inside part wasn’t so bad, but the stuff that got the bready part soggy almost made me hurl.
But, the worst backfire was the time Andy had to eat raw stomach soaked in hot sauce, the butcher called it ‘Tripe’. Andy isn’t one to chicken out. He has so many big brothers that nothing ever really phases him. Butch was really mad at him about something so he was the one who dared him to eat the Tripe with a whole bottle of hot sauce poured over it. Andy had taken about three bites and was plugging his nose to get it down when everything from the freshly eaten tripe to the morning’s breakfast came up and out. Everyone started to gag just looking at the mess on the ground.
As we were getting close to the Safeway we all agreed we for sure shouldn’t do the Gross-rie store dare-off because Tony’s mom was working and we didn’t want to spoil what was in store for us when we got there.
We headed for the Safeway store to get lunch. Tony’s mom worked in the bakery and if Tony gave her a heads up that we were all coming she always gave us the day-old Danish and junk. We didn’t care if it was a day old, a week old or a month old, a whole bag of Danish, donuts and long johns tasted good all the time.
We left our bikes propped up in the front of the store where the carts are kept and ran into the big store. We trotted back to the bakery first. When Tony’s mom saw me she said, “Well hello Gabriel, I see you still have at least one sweet tooth left!” The way she said tooth told me she was making some kind of comment about the time I had swiped her kid’s old, rotten pulled out teeth and I felt kind of sheepish.
“Yeah… I said I was sorry…” I muttered.
“Honey, I am just kidding with you.” Tony’s mom gave me a little hug.
“Mom, what’ve you got for us today?” Tony whispered, like it was some big secret that his mom gave us stale baked goods.
We talked to Tony’s mom for a little while and then she handed us two bags stuffed totally full of good stuff. She said, “You boys have to pay for these today, they aren’t free anymore.”
We walked about ten feet away from the bakery and I looked at Tony like he himself had betrayed us. “What gives with that? I didn’t bring that much money!”
“Yeah, what good is it to have a mom in the bakery if we don’t get free junk?” Butch snarled
“I d-don’t have t-t-too much m-money either!” Andy stammered.
“Cool it guys!” Tony snarled and pushed one of the bags in our faces. The price on the tag was fifteen cents.
Tony’s mom had come up behind us, “A penny a piece boys, a penny apiece.” She laughed and headed into the back of the bakery.
“That’s weird.” I said
“Mom told me it is okay to give away the day old stuff, but her manager needs her to do it that way because of inventory. She gave me fifty cents to cover it and these two bags are only thirty-two cents, so zip it you bunch of goons!”
“Goons? Who us?” I said sarcastically, “Goons are our brothers, not us, you big dork!”
“Who you calling dork?” Tony set the bags on a shelf and put me in a headlock and started to give me a wet willie.
“GROSS!” I pulled away from him, but my elbow caught a bunch of cans and they went tumbling to the ground making a huge racket.
Over the loudspeaker the manager’s voice boomed, “BOYS IN AISLE TWELVE, KNOCK IT OFF! IF YOU WANT TO BE ALLOWED BACK IN THE STORE RETURN THE CANS TO THE SHELVES AND SETTLE DOWN!”
All the other shoppers turned and looked at us. I hope my face wasn’t as red as Tony’s. Just then Tony’s mom rounded the corner. “Just what do you two think you are doing?”
“Nothing!” we both said at the same time and then scrambled to return the cans of lima beans to the shelf.
“Do you want to get me fired?” Tony’s mom asked with her hands on her hips.
“NO…” we both said under our breath, kind of ashamed of ourselves.
The manager rounded the corner and looked at the cans still lying on the floor, “Two of these cans are dented now. I can’t sell them, so you boys will have to buy them.”
Tony’s mom disappeared before the fireworks began. “Uh sure…” Tony stammered. “How much?”
“One dollar a piece.” The manager snarled.
“A buck!” I just watched my can of Pringles disappear for some lousy dented lima beans and it wasn’t even my fault. If Tony hadn’t been trying to spit up my ear I never would have knocked them off the shelf.
“Those are pretty expensive for some lousy beans…” Tony muttered and then as he was setting the last can on the shelf he said, “Hey, this tag says they’re only twenty-nine cents! What gives with the buck?”
“Denting charge.” The manager chuckled.
“DENTING CHARGE?” we both said at the same time.
“Don’t worry about it, I am just kidding. I’ll put them on our half price bargain bin. Just clean up your mess and stop messing around inside the store!” He called over the top of the aisle toward the bakery, “Louise, you sure have a gullible boy here!”
We walked away from the aisle, grabbing our baked goods and Tony whispered, “What’s gullible mean Peters?”
“Means you are totally lame.” I answered and then hustled away from him to see what was cooking back in the lunch area. That was a close one. The last thing I would want to eat for lunch was a cold can of overpriced lima beans. After we picked out some stuff, we walked over to the freezer part, where the ice cream is kept and pushed our faces down onto the frost. “Mmmmmm, that feels great! It is so, so hot today!” I complained.
Murph, Butch and Andy had wisely distanced themselves from us and they were wandering around the store getting all of their favorites for our picnic lunch. Murph grabbed a hot plastic plate from the warmer with chicken gizzards and livers and a tall coke. “GonnatryyourfavoritetodayPeters!KindoflikeArmyrations…”
I rolled my eyes and got a can of Pringles and a big beef jerky stick and a red cream soda. “Uh, I don’t eat the livers.” I said nodding my head at his platter.
Murph was too proud or something to put it back and get just gizzards, “Yeahwellthat’smyfavoritepart!” he sneered, but I knew he had never tried one really. So we walked up to the front together, on side of my face felt like a frozen popsicle, numb like when the dentist put some kind of junk in my mouth so he could pull one of my baby teeth once.
Andy had the weirdest lunch I have ever seen: he got some snowballs; which are those nasty gloppy marshmallowy coconut covered chocolate things, a Mountain Dew, two packs of Slim Jims and a pink grapefruit. “Gotta k-k-keep my strength up. S-Starting K-K-Karate l-lessons next w-w-eek!”
“Yeah some Karate lessons huh? Just your big brother punching you around in the basement if you ask me.” Tony snarled.
“Shut up Tony!” I snarled, “Andy could whup your butt now, even without Karate.”
“Oh, I am so scared.” Tony gave Andy and me a dirty look then grabbed a small jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly and a box of saltine crackers.
“You better get something to drink buddy! That is going to dry your mouth out!” I laughed.
Andy looked at the ground, “C-C-Can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I’m out of m-money.”
I pulled fifty cents out of my pocket and pushed it into his hand.
“Th-Thanks!” Andy went for the cold soda bin.
Butch came running up to the check out line, “I didn’t get anything yet! Wait up guys!”
“We’vebeenhereforhoursman,whathaveyoubeendoing?” Murph sneered.
“Reading the new Mad Magazine! What me worry?” Butch shrugged and had a dopey grin on his face like Alfred E. Newman.
“HURRY UP!” we all yelled.
So Butch ran around and came back with a big box of fudgesicles and a box of Otter Pops. “WhatareyougoingtodowithOtterPops?Theyhavetobefrozenyoudummy!” Murph laughed.
“Say’syouArmyDork!” Butch’s face got all red and he thumped Murph’s shoulder hard.
“Ow,yougavemeafrogbubble!” Murph screamed. The manager gave us a dirty look and we all shushed Murph.
I frowned, “But, seriously Butchie, you have to eat Otter Pops frozen!”
“No way, this is the best way to eat Otter Pops, it’s like super sweet Koolaid!” Butch insisted.
“What a dork!” Tony laughed. “Let’s go!” We went through the checkout and carried all of our loot to our bikes. When we left the air-conditioned store it felt like we had walked right into a sauna. My face tingled. It was so hot Butch’s Fudgesicles immediately began to melt and by the time he had chewed one down the rest were seeping out of the box. “Here guys, help me eat these. They ain’t gonna last! But you have to share your stuff with me then!”
Tony laughed, “Good thing you didn’t freeze those otter pops, wouldn’t have done any good.”
“See, I ain’t as dumb as you think!” Butch argued.
“You is if you says ain’t all the time.” I laughed.
“Nice grammar Peters.”
“Uh, that was intentional if you didn’t notice.” I laughed and shoved a Fudgesicle in my mouth.
We got on our bikes and started peddling toward the City Park. Murph was riding with one hand on the handlebar and with the other took one of the chicken livers out of the steaming package and stuffed it into his mouth. He got the worst look on his face, “YuckPetersyoulikethisnastystuff?” He threw one at Tony’s head.
“Watch it dummy!” Tony yowled.
“I told you I only like the gizzards, never livers, you weirdo!” I started to laugh. Murph pulled another liver out and threw at me. It whizzed right past my head. Then he threw one at a dog that was walking up the sidewalk. The dog sniffed it and wolfed it down and looked at us as we passed, hoping for another one. He started to trot after us and then just sat on the sidewalk under a shady tree. It was just too hot to run. The whole way down the street Murph was pelting us with livers.
“Try another one of the gizzards dummy! They might grow on you.” I weaved and yelled over the crackling of the cards in my spokes.
“NowayI’mnotputtinganotheroneofthosenastythinginmymouth!” Murphed yelled.
“Seriously, they are great! Don’t throw them too! I’ll eat them if you don’t want them! They don’t taste like the livers!” I yelled ducking a thrown one.
We wheeled our way down the side of one of the busiest streets in town, heading west to City Park. When we got near you could hear all the crazy kids on the other side of the lake that were cooling off in the big pool. You could smell the popcorn and cotton candy from the snack shack near the pool as we rounded the lake. “Man, that’s making me so hungry!” We have like ten thousand pounds of food and don’t forget our bakery bags!” I said as I dumped my bike in the grass and ran for the shaded picnic tables near the lake.
We were all so hot we sat right down by the lake, tore our shoes off and soaked our feet in the nasty, oily water. You could see all kinds of duck and goose poop floating and on the grass, but we didn’t care. We all stuffed our faces and the Pringles were making me so thirsty, I chugged down my whole bottle of red cream soda and then wished I would have paced myself. In a few minute I was going to be thirsty again.
We divided all the bakery stuff up evenly with a little bit of argument about who was going to get the two raspberry filled, I ended up with one, but gave half to Andy. I was getting stuffed and threw a piece of a long john at some geese that were hoping for a handout. All of a sudden they were honking and moving over each other to get closer to us. We all started throwing little chunks of baked goods onto the water and tried to throw it where it made them swim and fight for it. One of the geese rushed the shore and ran right up Butch’s leg. He started screaming and the goose got spooked and flapped his way back to the safety of the water. Almost as soon as we were down to the last crumbs from the bakery bags they started to swim away to see what other people sitting around the lake might have.
We spent the rest of the afternoon lying around in the sun. Going back and forth from the pool to the park where we had swinging and singing contests. You had to pick a dumb song and sing it in the rhythm of your swinging and the goal was to kick hard enough that you were swinging back and forth really fast so your song went faster and faster. The funniest one was Murph because he already talked so fast that when he sang he sang even faster and so off tune other people in the park were covering their ears and making comments about how he could make a dog cry with that voice.
Murph didn’t care, matter of fact it seemed to encourage him to sing even louder and even more off tune, “THEANTSGOMARCHINGONEBYONHURRAHHURRAHTHEANTSGOMARCHINGONEBYONEHURRAHHURRAHTHEANTSGOMARCHINGONEBYONETHELITTLEONESTOPSTOSUCKBUTCHESTHUMBANDBUTCHGOESCRYINGHOME!THEANTSGOMARCHINGTWOBYTWOHURRAHHURRAHTHEANTSGOMARCHINGTWOBYTWOHURRAHHURRAHTHEANTSGOMARCHINGTWOBYTWOTHELITTLEONESTOPSTOTAKEAPOORIGHTONTONY’SFOOT…”
“So mature Murph!” Tony scowled, but we were all laughing and you should have seen the look on some of the mom’s faces who were pushing their little kids around the merry-go-round. Some of them looked kind of mad. Some of them were laughing.
Then we saw Mrs. O’Malley, our school’s librarian heading right toward us. It was pretty weird to see a teacher or librarian out of the school building. Why would she be there? Didn’t she live at school? What did she want? I wondered. Then I remembered my overdue book charge that I never took care of before school was out and I took off running through the trees toward the lake.
All the guys followed me and I yelled, “We gotta get out of here!” before you knew it, we were pedaling noisily down the street toward the railroad tracks that would lead us back home.

Cowboys and Aliens All Mixed Up is on itunes!

1728 delightfully rendered alien cowboys are now an app on itunes for the ipad! Aliens All Mixed Up is also an app on itunes for the ipad! The next mix and match book we are developing for both print and ipad is Pooches All Mixed Up. In development (Hollywood talk for in the author's brain) are Dinos All Mixed Up, Monster Mamas All mixed up and more. If you have the traditional Aliens All Mixed Up in the "old fashioned" book form, please let readers know what you think of it (amazon.com has a great easy forum for reviews). I thank you for reading this and hope your ipad will soon be buzzing with aliens and cowboys ALL MIXED UP!

Aliens All Mixed Up and Cowboys and Aliens All Mixed Up on iTunes!

Aliens All Mixed Up is available on itunes now for only $2.99. This week Cowboys and Aliens All Mixed Up will be coming out for only $2.99. That is 1728 different combinations in each book. That is only $.000173032 per alien!

Come give a listen to some fun poems

Summertime is a great time to catch up on things! I write. This summer I've finally made my website "user friendly", including a page for people to contribute to. To build with pictures, poems or just anything they/you want on there.

But one thing I really like is the ability for people to experience something and now with the poetry page it is possible. Come give a listen and let me know what you think.

http://www.justinmatott.com/JUSTIN_MATOTT_AUTHOR/my_poems.html

A 5TH GRADE CLASS REVIEW AND POINTS OF VIEW, THANK YOU!

A HUGE 'shout out' to Sara S. and her fifth grade class who recently posted the following reviews at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Works-of-Justin-Matott/213624096290?ref=ts


FROM THE TEACHER, SARA S:

I just finished reading The Gabriel Book of World Records with my 5th grade class. It was one of the funniest books I have read in a LONG time. When the kids began laughing, it was hard to stop myself. In fact, at one point I even started to cry because it was so amusing. Gabe was easy to relate to as he went on many adventures with his friends in their pursuit of getting into the Guinness Book of World Records. The book reminded me of my own childhood and I could not stop laughing as the boys played pranks on their older brothers. The boys in my class definitely enjoyed it because of the "boy" humor, but the girls loved it too. I would recommend this to any reader who is looking for a good laugh. Below are the reviews my students wrote. Enjoy!!!


FROM THE STUDENTS:

The Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott is a fantastic story. It is creative and full of adventure. One minute Gabe might be investigating an old abandon grave yard and the next, he could be planning a surprise attack on his goon-of-a-brother. Gabe has his heart set on a world record of his own, to be in the Guinness Book. With the Brotherhood of Boys, they can do anything.
This is one of the best books in the world! (Good enough to be in the next Guinness Book of World Records!) Fun and surprises lurk around every turn. If you’re looking for an exciting story, this is the book for you. I strongly recommend this amazing tale of a boy, with a dream.
~ Tessa C.

Hilarious. Intriguing. Amazing. Those are just some of the words to describe The Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott. His true amazement comes out in this book. Gabe, as so his friends call him, goes on tons of adventures, as well as trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Of course, Carl, Gabe’s brother, gets in the way with his friends and out comes war! To know the end, read it. I absolutely LOVED this book. It was so entertaining and our class would be so happy when we read it. In our free time in class, we would mostly want to read more of Gabe. It’s too good of a book to not be read by a lot of people. I’d recommend it to, well, ANYONE! ~ Elise G.

The book Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott was filled with humor and a great way to remember your childhood. I liked most the way Justin Matott put in all the adventure. It was a fun, exciting book. Gabe is a normal boy that has fun with his friends. He invades his older brothers and blows up their fort. He does many other action packed things. I would recommend this book to kids and adults because it is humorous and brings back memories for adults.
~ Cullen F.

The Gabriel book of world records by Justin Matott is strongly recommended by a majority of Mrs. Stites 5th grade class. The book was filled with many laughs. I strongly enjoyed the kid’s point of view in this story. This story can be for both boys and girls because I, as a girl, enjoyed hearing The Secret Brotherhood of Boys do some of the things I do in my own neighborhood. This story had great feeling in it and our class was always disappointed to stop reading.
This book is very funny! This is just the book to get any one laughing and smiling. Justin Matott did a fabulous job of entertaining the reader. This is a great book! ~ Elise T.

In the book The Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott a boy named Gabe and his friends have many adventures over the summer and during the year. They are all in The Secret Brotherhood of Boys. Their adventures range from catching a giant crawdad to sleeping in a haunted school house. When school starts back up their adventures slow down but not their passion for getting into The Guinness Book of World Records. They need to find out how to get in.
The Gabriel Book of World Records was an awesome book. It’s hysterical. I recommend this book to anyone who loves funny books. ~ Victoria P.

The Gabriel book of World Records by Justin Matott is about a boy and his friends. They call themselves the Secret Brother Hood of Boys. They are trying to set a world record and get into the world record book. They have all these crazy ideas, like creating the biggest sheet of glue rolled in hands made into a sheet and creating the biggest spit pool, they actually tried both. Will they make it into the record book? I recommend this book to people how like fireworks and getting down and dirty in books. ~Shae M.

Gabe always wanted to be in the book of world records. He and his friends are called the secret brotherhood of boys. The brotherhood battles the goon squad(older brothers) and has many humorous adventures. Gabe writes stories(that you can read) and tries to get into the book. This book brings back memories of being little. I love that it’s hilarious and has many tales. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to laugh. ~ Jack M.

In the book The Gabriel Book of World Records, Gabriel Peters is an intelligent young boy who is just dying to get into the Guinness book of world records. He and his Secret Brotherhood of Boys, get together and start their own world record for the book. This book tells the long enjoyable year of a group of young boys and their interesting ideas.
I suggest this book to anyone who loves to laugh. It is full of hysterical things, like fat cats, frogs and much more. This is the best book to read in a classroom. I loved this book and so did all of my class. A really great book! Justin Matott you did a really good job. ~Juliana L.

THE GABRIEL BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS is a fun, crazy, story. Gabe is always thinking of fun adventures, like when he tried to start a frog farm. That was a mess! In the end it tells a wonderful story of a boy’s summer. I would recommend this book for people who are in for a good laugh. ~ Lauren K.

In this picture filled chapter book by Justin Matott, a boy named Gabriel Peters tries to get into the book of world records with his group of friends called the Brotherhood of Boys. It’s a story about Gabriel and the different ideas he and his friends try to use to get into the record book. It was also about he and his friend and how they pestered his older brother and his friends older brothers. It was a quite amusing story.
In my opinion this book was one of my favorite books ever and I don’t usually read this kind of book but I would totally recommend it to other kids to read. I loved all the pictures in it and the funny stories told in it. I love the Gabriel Book of World Records ~Makena S.

In the chapter book The Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott, Gabriel Peters and his friends are trying to get into the world records book. The things in the way are their older brothers, they are ruining the whole experience and helping a tiny bit. Justin Matott really went and made it realistic and a hilarious story. I strongly recommend this absolutely humorous story. ~ Mariah C.

Gabriel Peters was the main character in the Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott. Gabe was a kid that would pick on his older brother and his older brother would pick on him right back. He had some friends that were in the “Secret Brother Hood of Boys” with him. The “Secret Brother Hood of Boys” is a club Gabe and his friends came up with. Gabe’s whole plan for the summer was to get into the book of records. Gabe and his friends tried to get into the book by making the world’s largest spit pool. (The sad thing is they did not get into the book that way.)
The Gabriel Book of World Records was a very entertaining and funny book. I would highly recommend it to people who are looking for a well written book. ~ Natalie T.

In the book Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott, Gabriel Peterson is one action full kid, blowing up fireworks here and there and trying not to get in trouble by the Goon Squad. Gabriel is the president of a group called The Secret Brother of Boys and all the of the older brothers of the boys are called the Goon Squad. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants a great laugh and burn up time.
P.S. This is my favorite book I have ever read.
~Philip P.

The book The Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott is about a boy and his friends who try to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. I liked the book because it was funny when one of the boys gets pinched by crawdads after falling into the water. ~ Ryan O.

The book Gabriel Book of World Records is a funny book about a boy named Gabriel Peters. Gabe is a boy that has a club called the Secret Brotherhood of Boys. All of the boys in the club have older brothers. The older brothers have a club named the Goon Squad. The older brothers and the younger brothers are always fighting. (Don’t get me wrong it’s a funny book with funny fights). During the summer they all camp, play, and do other fun things together.
During the summer Gabe and the rest of the Brotherhood of Boys think of ways to get into the Book of World Records. One way they try is to make a huge spit pool! They try to put it into the book of world records. But don’t make it.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone. It is a really funny book and love it. ~ Sofia R.

The Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott is about a boy named Gabriel (Gabe) who really wants to get into the book of world records with his friends the first thing he thinks of is a giant spit pool, but it does NOT work at all. Next, he thinks of tying fireworks to his bike and jumping over the canyon where the train goes, that doesn’t work either. So now he starts annoying his brother and the rest of goon squad and that works. So now his brother’s crazy goon squad go against Gabe's brotherhood of boys club. Who will win and what will happen next? I would recommend this book for people who love hilarious books and who also love do weird experiments. ~Tomah W.

The Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott was a funny one indeed. Gabe and his Secret Brotherhood of Boys try to set world records like the world’s largest spit pool. On their assuming and marvelous adventure, they don’t just try to set world records. They make bets with their older brothers, like sleeping in a haunted school. This book was funny, but some parts in this story are really disgusting. I would recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh, or Y-O-U!!! ~ Clara H.

In the book Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott, Gabe and his imaginative friends try to make world records like the biggest spit pool and many more. They face troubles and mean brothers but have a blast doing it. I loved it because it made me laugh. It was LOL. It was the best book I ever read!! I would recommend it to anyone who likes fun. ~Ellie S.

The Gabriel Book of World Records by Justin Matott is the complete opposite of bad. It’s awesome! It’s filled with excitement and adventure of Gabe’s life. One time he’s exploding fireworks and the next he’s consulting with his brotherhood on how they can break the world record. I strongly recommend this book to whoever is looking for a book that is humorous and great. If that sounds good then this is the book for you. ~Rob R.

The book Gabriel Book of World Records is very funny that will keep you hooked for hours! Gabe as they call him in the story is fascinated about the Guinness book of world records. He can’t even think how cool it would be to get into the book. The book will entertain you whether you laugh, cry, or pee your pants! ~Ethan K.

Gabriel Peters is an imaginative young boy full of adventure. In this book you will enjoy reading Gabe’s absurd plans like a frog farm and the world’s largest spit pool. Read as Gabe and his friends conquer dangerous plans with fire crackers, and assaults against the goon squad [older brothers], a dare off, and attempts to get into the World Record book. Learn about glen the sea monkey, the brother hood of boys, old Indian legends, and Mr. Pattchet. You will probably double over laughing at their pranks.
This is a great with action adventure, and humor. The action is nonstop because of how the characters are always doing something new. An example would be when Gabe and his friends go frog hunting but the next day, go to the haunted school house. This also provides lots of adventure. There is also lots of humor between Gabe and his brother Carl, because of their double trouble.
I loved this book with all of its humor and adventure. It is never boring. I loved the whole book except for one of the pages where it got a little violent. I also think the author could have ended the book better. Other than that I think it is a great book.
I recommend this book for ages six and up because some of the humor may not be appropriate for young readers. If your kids are pranksters, you might think twice about letting your kids read this. It might give them a bad idea. Not like horrible ideas but, some silly ones that people may not find funny. I recommend this book for anyone who likes Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This is a great book. ~ Maddie B.

SCHOOL VISIT BLOG ESTABLISHED

Whether your school is a HUGE complex smack dab in the middle of a GIANT CITY or a tiny "one room schoolhouse" out on a prairie, I want to come visit you!

At long last my new website design is out there with a ton of information, including new school visit information @ www.justinmatott.com
Please come take a look and let me know what you think!

IN ADDITION: I have created a "subBLOG" for schools with all the information I am asked for about how to create the most successful school visit. IF you have any interest in a school visit, please come check it out http://justinmatottatyourskul.blogspot.com/

I have visited schools as far away as Guatemala and hope you will consider one whether I am in your backyard or a plane ride, boat trip or yak ride away! And don't forget to watch my school visit video to get a flavor for what you are in store for!