Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Beautiful pictures, cute story. June 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a cute story about Wendell and Floyd (two characters Teague has written about before)and the reasons they are always late to school, reasons their teacher will never accept. And who could blame her really, until we see for our own eyes.
The boys decide to get up extra early one morning before school and end up taking a shortcut Wendell makes up all by himself. With Floyd following, they swing from vines in a hidden jungle, meet monkeys and dodge alligators all just to get to school on time.
As I read this story to my young boys, I enjoyed how they studied the detailed pictures and imagined themselves in the characters positions. That's what I like in a story-being able to picture yourself inside it!
 childhood memory November 10, 2007
i read this when i was like 9. and i finally bought it. best book ever
Third Graders in Room 205 at Burnt Bridge Creek Elementary March 28, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Wendell and Floyd were always late for school. Their teacher was always furious about that. She didn't believe their crazy stories. They decided they were going to take a shortcut to school.
The shortcut turned out to be a jungle in their wildest dreams and one of the biggest risks of their lives. Will they make it out of the jungle alive? Will they get to school on time?
We think that people of all ages would enjoy this story. Students who are always late for school would REALLY enjoy this story. What are you waiting for? Read it!!!
Not Wild Enough February 3, 2005
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Wendell and Floyd just can't seem to get to school on time. They offer completely outlandish excuses for being late to school (pirates, a plague of frogs!), but realize that they need to find a way to get there on time. Wendell (who, perhaps in homage to early comics, looks very much like one of the Katzenjammer kids of 1897) has an idea: He and Floyd will take "the secretest shortcut of them all...In fact, I invented it myself."
After scrambling though a thicket of vines, Wendell and Floyd find that their shortcut leads to a jungle! Two-page color spread shows the boys maneuvering past leopards, peacocks, and tapirs, rhinos, and snake; traveling a narrow path across "quicksand swamps and sleeping crocodiles," and then over a "deep, rocky gorge." Seeing that the shortcut is taking as long, if not longer, than the "longcut," the boys swing Tarzan-like from vines until the vines run out and they land in a muddy lake.
Although the wild diversion through the jungle is humorous and sometimes exciting, the book is a bit one-dimensional: They're traveling through a jungle, it's true, but they see typical jungle creatures and terrain. Some of the illustrations lacked depth because of insufficient shadowing, although I like the multiple perspectives from which Teague draws the boys. The conclusion, which comes quickly, is also a bit disappointing.
The book might have been more compelling if the boys had encountered as much of the improbable on the shortcut as they did on their usual route (for example, the plague of frogs). The monkey-mimicking vine swinging, ending with the disgruntled boys "in a giant puddle of mud" is a nice surprise, but a more ridiculous progression of events, perhaps told straight a la Daniel Pinkwater would have been funnier and more interesting.
 Things that happen in the Secret Shortcut May 17, 2004
Have you ever been late for school ? Do you like the jungle?
If so I think the secret shortcut is a good book for you. It's about two boys named Wendell and Floyed that are always late for school. They tell fibs to their teacher about why they were late like almost being captured by space creatures, pirates loose in the neighborhood or a plague of frogs.
Will they get to school on time? You can find out the rest if you check out The Secret Shorocut by Mark Teague. I recommend this book because I think its a fun book to read .Its funnie how they imagine things. I hope you enjoy this book.
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