Just in time to be late for Halloween when everybody is sick of scary costumes and candy and all things demonic or witchy, my youngest little dude and I finished reading a book about a brother and sister who die and end up in Heck. Yes, you read that right. It’s like hell, but for kids, so it’s not as bad. Yeah, you read that right, too.
Heck: Where The Bad Kids Go, is written by Dale Basye and was published by Random House Children’s Books a couple of months ago. The plot follows Milton and Marlo Fauster (Get it? Fauster? Faust? Deals with the devil? It’s the first of many puns.) as they die in a horrible marshmallow incident and end up in the timeless Heck, where they are to stay until they are eighteen or until the end of eternity, whichever comes first. Difficult, especially since no time passes in the Limbo-ish Heck. The bad kids are in a school, the principal for which is Bea “Elsa” Bubb, a nasty demoness. The demons in Heck run around with pitchsporks and it’s basically horribly twisted version of every bad school you’ve ever attended.
The only problem for the Fausters (other than being dead, of course), is that while Marlo was a bad kid, Milton was a sweet, angelic little dude who never did anything wrong. Except in the last instant of his life, when he unknowingly helped Marlo steal something. The big question is, of course, will the Fausters escape? Is it possible? Will Principal Bea “Elsa” Bubb get her comeuppance?
My youngest little dude did enjoy the book, although I did have to explain a lot of the jokes. (Richard Nixon teaching a class on ethics, Blackbeard the pirate teaching P.E. and so on) I didn’t really enjoy the book as much as did the little dude, but, then again, he loves potty humor and, brother, there was a lot of that.
The problem I had with the book was that, although the scenes themselves were funny, the book was really depressing if you stopped to think about it. I mean, these are kids who have died and are going to be spending eternity in what can only be termed the worst school in existence. Maybe it just doesn’t bear thinking about.
Because my youngest little dude liked it and I got a couple of chuckles from the book, I’ll give it three Dude!s.
– Richard
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