The Fizzy Whiz Kid
Grade 4–6—Sixth-grader Mitch Mathis, whose professor father studies cockroaches, is the new kid in a town called Hollywood. Everyone he meets seems to be involved in show business, but Mitch doesn't know much about TV or movies. Still, to fit in he tries his luck in a talent search and auditions for Fizzy Whiz Soda. When he is hired to do a series of comic commercials, Mitch finds that he enjoys the filming, the crew, and the animals that appear with him. In classic Hollywood rise-and-fall fashion, the star neglects his friends, only to be jolted awake to the value of his previous life. A government study on junk food places Fizzy Whiz at the top of the list of products with heavy sugar concentrations. As the face of Fizzy Whiz, Mitch is now all over TV, but not the way he envisioned. How he gets out of the commercials and what he does next make for a satisfying conclusion. An entertaining read.—Terrie Dorio, Santa Monica Public Library, CA(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.