Funny Little Monkey

Funny Little Monkey
by Andrew Auseon
YA fiction. 296 pp.
Harcourt. 2005.

from the flap copy: "Arty Moore is half as big but twice as smart as the other kids at Millard Fillmore High. His twin brother, Kurt, however, is a hulking hormonal monster with a brain the size of a walnut and a seriously short fuse."

When Arty is beat up by Kurt one time too many, he seeks out the "outcasts" who form the secret underground at the school to get revenge on his brother. The revenge plot is rather intriguing and impressively pulled off by the underground, who know--and document--pretty much all there is to know about each student at Millard Fillmore.

I wasn't overly impressed with the book. It was a bit slow to get to the initial problem. There were probably more subplots than necessary. I think I would have liked them better had they contributed more fully to character development. But they didn't.

Perhaps the one thing I see to recommend the book is the voice. The voice is strong and distinctive. I personally don't like Arty, but the author does a great job in giving him his own voice and letting him carry through with that voice.