Author: Chris Grabenstein
Illustrator: Brooke Allen (Books 3 & 4 have Kelly Kennedy for interior illustrations)
© Date: 2016
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 285
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, a lot of page layouts have an illustration
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: Yes, language list, fact or fiction, recipes
Summary from Book: Welcome to Wonderland—the world’s wackiest motel!
I’m P.T. Wilkie, and I know one thing for a FACT: the Wonderland Motel is the BEST place a kid could ever live!
All-you-can-eat poolside ice cream! A snack machine in the living room! A frog slide!
There’s only one thing the Wonderland DOESN’T have: customers. And if we don’t get them soon, the Wonderland is toast.
We need to think BIG. We need to think BOLD.
We need an OUTRAGEOUS plan.
Lucky for us, my friend Gloria is a business GENIUS, and OUTRAGEOUS is practically my middle name. We’re not going down without a fight! With Gloria’s smarts and my world-famous stories, there has to be a way to save the Wonderland!
Page Pig Thoughts: Who knew that story telling could save the day? We giggled our way through P.T. Wilkie’s entertaining stories and enjoyed find out how his creativity would save the day for his family’s motel. While my favorite joke may have come early on in the first book (Juan Ponce de Leon…you don’t meet many kids with that first name anymore…maybe his parents named him Juan Ponce because he only had one pair of pants…you know, one pants…Juan Ponce?), we found plenty of humor in all of the stories. I particularly enjoyed that a lot of the illustrations have jokes of their own and are like single panel comics.
The P.T. father angle woven into the stories seemed a bit odd when you hit the end of the book and see a comment directed toward P.T.’s dad but you hadn’t really heard much of anything else related to that anywhere else. This didn’t take away from the stories, but caught me off guard in at least two of the books.
This one gets Page Pup thumbs up.
Who tells a story better? P.T. Wilkie or Chris Grabenstein? Doesn’t matter, both are entertaining. Now that we are done with this series, maybe we will re-read Mr. Lemoncello’s Fantabulous Finale [review] for the Gloria Ortega angle.
Family Unit:
- P.T. (11 years old) lives at the Wonderland Motel with his mother and grandfather. P.T. has never met his father.
- Gloria Ortega is staying at the Wonderland with her father, Manny. Her mother died 6 years before they arrive at the Wonderland.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Mr. Frumpkes the history teacher is always ruining P.T.’s fun. Mr. Frumpkes believes facts are more important than fiction and is not one for silly antics.
- Book 1 has the Wonderland going out of business from lack of customers. P.T. and Gloria start creating business with some spring break fun.
- Book 1 has P.T. discovering that jewels from an old jewel heist were stashed somewhere on the Wonderland property. P.T. and Gloria need to outsmart the jewel thieves and “insurance agent” that are seeking the lost jewels.
- Books 2 and 3 have business rivals, the Conches, shaking things up and not always playing fair.
- Book 2 has a movie being filmed at the Wonderland. P.T. and Gloria deal with the challenges of keeping the movie going while dealing with the not great personality of one of the stars.
- Book 2 has P.T.’s mom thinking about selling their property to the big resort that moved in next door. She dreams of retiring in Arizona while P.T. works to save his motel home from demolition.
- Book 3 has a priceless royal family tiara going missing on the Wonderland property. P.T. creates lots of waves when he believes just about everyone is a suspect, including his own grandfather.
- Book 4 has the Wonderland vying for Florida Fun in the Sun magazine’s coveted award. Grandpa finally has his shot at getting the award and showing up Disney.
Positive Items:
- P.T. and Gloria make the dynamic duo that bring business back to the Wonderland. They demonstrate that multiple skills are necessary to bring business success.
- P.T. realizes that everyone that works at the Wonderland is his family, so they all should be treated like family. While he was pretty good about it at the start of Book 3, he really discovers what it means by the end.
- P.T. learns that winning isn’t everything in Book 4. He realizes that you don’t need a trophy to feel like a winner.
Items of Interest:
- P.T. periodically makes references to trying to send messages to his father. By the end of book 3, P.T. has kinda made peace with other people acting as his father figure.
- P.T. is names after P.T. Barnum and can tell an entertaining tale about just about anything. P.T. stand for Phineas Taylor.
- Gloria watches business news, reads business news, and lives business news. She is marketing and business savvy.
- Manny Ortega works at the local T.V. station and dreams of a job at ESPN.
- Grandpa has a chip on his shoulder about Disney World. Grandpa had opened the Wonderland one year before Disney World opened. He frequently mentions that he had an amazing year with all of his kooky gimmicks.
- P.T.’s mother has a crush on Manny Ortega, and it seems mutual. P.T. is pseudo oblivious to it for the first book or two.
- On his quests to create business for the Wonderland, P.T. does not always put himself and Gloria in the safest of positions, but he has a knack for finding his way back out.
- P.T. feels like barfing at the end of book 4 when his mom and Manny make eyes at each other. Gloria was grossed out too.
- More than one book has a character willing to cheat to win a contest or look good (Mr. Conch and Bradley from Fun Castle).
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- Book 2 – Welcome to Wonderland: Beach Party Surf Monkey
- Book 3 – Welcome to Wonderland: Sandapalooza Shake-up
- Book 4 – Welcome to Wonderland: Beach Battle Blowout