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Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made [Hardcover]

Stephan Pastis
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)

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Book Description

February 26, 2013 8 and up Timmy Failure (Book 1)520L (What's this?)
Meet "detective" Timmy Failure, star of the kids’ comedy of the year. Created by New York Times best-selling cartoonist Stephan Pastis.

Take Timmy Failure — the clueless, comically self-confident CEO of the best detective agency in town, perhaps even the nation. Add his impressively lazy business partner, a very large polar bear named Total. Throw in the Failuremobile — Timmy’s mom’s Segway — and what you have is Total Failure, Inc., a global enterprise destined to make Timmy so rich his mother won’t have to stress out about the bills anymore. Of course, Timmy’s plan does not include the four-foot-tall female whose name shall not be uttered. And it doesn’t include Rollo Tookus, who is so obsessed with getting into "Stanfurd" that he can’t carry out a no-brainer spy mission. From the offbeat creator of Pearls Before Swine comes an endearingly bumbling hero in a caper whose peerless hilarity is accompanied by a whodunit twist. With perfectly paced visual humor, Stephan Pastis gets you snorting with laughter, then slyly carries the joke a beat further — or sweetens it with an unexpected poignant moment — making this a comics-inspired story (the first in a new series) that truly stands apart from the pack.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Timmy Failure is a winner!
—Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Pastis has assembled an eccentric and funny cast (running gags revolve around Total’s voracious appetite and a librarian who looks like one of the Hells Angels), yet there are also touching interactions to be found...
—Publishers Weekly

…Readers should be simultaneously amused and touched by this quirky antihero.
—Booklist

The Pearls Before Swine cartoonist’s frequent black-and-white illustrations help to cast Timmy’s adventure in an appropriately ironic light. Timmy… has greatness in him. Just like all of us.
—Kirkus Reviews

Pastis crafts a great story starring an unforgettable protagonist whose unorthodox approach to detective work (and world domination) will have readers in stitches. For Timmy Failure, success is the only option!
—Lincoln Peirce, creator of the Big Nate series

Seldom has failure been so likable—or so funny.
—The Wall Street Journal

Pastis ... peppers nearly every page of this comic romp with at least one intentionally amateurish black-and-white illustration, enhancing the laughs along the way as Timmy misses even the most obvious clues in Clouseauesque fashion. Middle grade readers will appreciate all the silly sleuthing and absurd details, and older readers–including parents who come along for the ride–will find a satisfying layer of more sophisticated humor, too.
—School Library Journal

About the Author

Stephan Pastis is the creator of Pearls Before Swine, an acclaimed comic strip that appears in more than six hundred newspapers and boasts a devoted following. His 2011 compilation Larry in Wonderland debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for paperback graphic novels. Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made is his first book for young readers. He lives in Northern California.

Product Details

  • Age Range: 8 and up
  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Candlewick (February 26, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0763660507
  • ISBN-13: 978-0763660505
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephan Pastis took an unusual route to becoming a number-one best-selling comics creator: he went to law school. It's not that he didn't want to become a cartoonist - as a child growing up in the Los Angeles suburb of San Marino, he spent many happy hours off by himself drawing. He was routinely called on to create cartoons for his school newspapers. But by the time he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in political science, Pastis - a completely self-taught artist - felt it unlikely that his cartoons would ever be syndicated.

So he found himself sitting in class at UCLA Law School, hopelessly bored, sketching the character Rat (who would later become a mainstay of all his future comic strips). Creative inspiration followed him through graduation in 1993 to his first law firm job in San Francisco, where by 1996 he finally started submitting his comics to syndicates. Persisting through an initial spate of rejections, Stephan Pastis created his signature strip Pearls Before Swine and eventually signed on with his syndicate in 1999. Pearls was off and running, making appearances on the web, in newspapers, and in many best-selling books.

In 2013, inspired to break out of the box of a daily comic strip, Pastis took on the new challenge of becoming a children's author, penning the first book in a projected middle grade series called Timmy Failure, about an inept kid detective and his sidekick polar bear. Fail it did not; receiving stellar reviews and becoming an instant New York Times and National Indie bestseller. Now published in nearly 40 languages worldwide, Pastis' defective detective is poised to become the next big breakout children's book character.


Customer Reviews

This was a book that anyone with a good sense of humor will enjoy at any age. Jason L. Miller  |  16 reviewers made a similar statement
As soon as he finished, he started reading it again. Stephenie  |  10 reviewers made a similar statement
I bought it for my 8 year old daughter who read it in one day. Brenda  |  6 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Debut Novel That's Perfect For All Ages February 26, 2013
Format:Hardcover
This is the debut novel from Stephan Pastis, creator of the amazing comic strip Pearls Before Swine. While his comic might not be all ages material this book sure is. The characters are fun and well written with an engaging plot. Timmy Failure ( yes that's his name) is an ambitious boy who wants to run a detective agency to get money to help his mother but has competition from his rivals ( and other reasons). He gets some help from his partner, a polar bear named Total in forming Total Failure. With a name like that what can go wrong?

From the very first line the book draws you in and makes you fall in love with its universe and the writing only gets stronger from there. This has been described as the next diary of a wimpy kid and as a cross between diary and calvin and hobbes and the influence of the latter on Pastis is undeniable as seen in the protagonist, who has many qualities shared by Calvin ( He has noted the influence himself several times in the past). Personally I think the book is its own thing and can stand on its own merits.

While there are quite a few plot threads that seem to get dropped without much explanation, readers will still be satisfied. While this is a kids book officially, it is really for all ages as adults will appreciate some parts that kids might not.

Timmy is a protagonist who is an outsider of sorts but comments on the adult world in a way that anyone who is frustrated can relate to. The unreliable narrator in fiction is not always done well but Pastis nails it here.

All in all a great novel for kids nine and up and for adults and teens as well.

Happy reading!
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars My 8 year old says it's "un-put-down-able" March 3, 2013
By Brenda
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book is in 60 chapters of a few pages each, so it's easy to read. But it has plenty of vocabulary building words (obscured, recidivism, etc.). I bought it for my 8 year old daughter who read it in one day.

I think it will depend on a kid's sense of humor whether they love the book or don't really "get it." The main character is basically a clueless weirdo. If your kid really loves comic strips or books like "Dork Diaries" I think they are really likely to love this book. My 12 year old daughter read a few pages and didn't care for it. I think kids as young as 5 who are strong readers might enjoy this book with some help from their parents.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully Humorous! A Must-Read for All Ages! March 3, 2013
Format:Hardcover
Stephan Pastis's Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made is not a failure! Timmy delights readers with his experience as one of the best detectives in the world. He lays it all out from his questionable sleuthing skills to silly mishaps at home and school.

Timmy Failure is dead set on building his business into a detective agency empire, but he is not without trials: one being his lazy partner Total, who is also a polar bear, and others being his idiot best friend Rollo and his evil rival Corinna Corinna.

How Timmy describes those around him is almost so exaggerated you might wonder what's wrong with him. Timmy has a very strong voice which actually surprised me since he's an eleven-year-old. He expresses his opinions very decidedly. I find that his peculiar personality adds to his story's humor and helps readers understand where his super self-confidence comes from. Then, of course, there are the illustrations that provide further detail for whatever crazy plan goes wrong. Those drawings are like an extension of Timmy's voice and just as comical.

Pastis hits the mark when it comes to providing humorous entertainment for the middle grade age group. It's a big plus that adults and older teens will enjoy Timmy's antics as well. Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made is the just the first installment in Stephan Pastis's debut series and the hilarious plot will surely tide you over until the next!
*Book provided via publisher in exchange for an honest review*
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars predictable
Basically, just a very predictable story, containing too many jokes that required further explanation for children to understand. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Mark Baker
5.0 out of 5 stars My 10 year old loves it.
My 10 year old son is mildly dyslexic and will not struggle through a book he doesn't enjoy. However, he loves this book and was reading to the kids in his class today and had them... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Michelle Edling
4.0 out of 5 stars Cal liked it!
I bought this for my 8 year old grandson and he said he liked it and would read more about Timmy Failure when available
Published 2 days ago by Melissa Byars
5.0 out of 5 stars FUNNY
An easy story to read and have fun. Very enjoyable! I bought this item because I loved the title. It is really funny and readiable!
Published 7 days ago by VicManDAY
5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out loud funny!
Timmy Failure is a book about a boy with the same name who runs a detective agency with his pet polar bear, Total. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Young Mensan BookParade
3.0 out of 5 stars Just OK
I expected this book to be funnier but regardless, my 10 year grandson still finds it funny. My 7 year old granddaughter does not.
Published 8 days ago by Rosemary Burki
5.0 out of 5 stars Freaking hilarious (but not for kids)
Timmy Failure, the debut effort by comic strip writer Stephan Pastis, is freaking hilarious. But this is not a book I will give to my kids, at least not yet. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Jason Kirkfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Timmy is great
This book is perfect for those reluctant readers in 5th grade. I found the story very entertaining. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Mrs. B. Librarian
4.0 out of 5 stars Good kids humor
Timmy failure is a very weird detective and his IQ in solving cases is a big fat zero but his adventures with his best friend a polar bear named Total will make you laugh
Published 19 days ago by Kate Thoma
3.0 out of 5 stars Polar Bear in the front room.
Quite funny, but Stephan Pastis runs into difficulty weaving this bear into a story about a precocious elementary school detective.
Published 22 days ago by Donald Gillman
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