Beat the Band

Cooper, Matt, and Sean are eager to start their sophomore year of high school with a bang. Well, Cooper is anyway. He's sure that he is going to be a big hit with the ladies. Unfortunately, the first day of health class changes everything when he is partnered with social outcast "Hot Dog" Helen for their semester-long project on safe sex. Cooper knows that he's going to have to do something big to overcome the stigma that comes from working with Helen - something like winning the school's Battle of the Bands with Matt and Sean. The only problem? Their band is really bad...

Beat the Band is the sequel to author Don Calame's 2009 gem Swim the Fly, and this follow-up is just as much fun as the first. This time we get the story from Cooper's perspective, which is actually a lot of fun. Cooper is the kind of wacky, irreverent character who usually makes an entertaining sidekick to the main attraction as we saw in Swim the Fly (which was narrated by Matt's character). With this book narrated from his point of view we really get inside his head with no apologies and no justification for his behavior. But what we do get is the opportunity to see his funny-man of the group really develop in to a fully three-dimensional character, and I give Calame a lot of credit for fleshing him out without loosing any of his ridiculous charm. Like its predecessor, Beat the Band is a light and funny but impressively complex story that is sure to please.

Overall Grade: A-

And further good news: Don Calame has plans to write a third chapter in this series, this time narrated from Sean's point of view. This installment is tentatively titled Call the Shots and will be out Fall 2012.