The Boy Who Swallows Flies
Michael F. Stewart
Publication date: February 15th 2018
Genres: Middle-Grade, Mystery, Superhero
Winner of the Claymore Award!
Warning – Rated Kids-Only for Bug Violence
Jarrod can view the memories of any bug. He just has to eat it. It’s not the tastiest of superpowers and, let’s face it, fly memories aren’t all unicorns and rainbows. Eating insects also doesn’t net him many friends, and Bug-boy is an unavoidable nickname. But Jarrod’s ready to prove that he and his bugs are worth more than ridicule.
When he swallows a fly while biking, he’s in for a shock. The bug saw a room stacked full of sick dogs and puppies in crates. It’s a puppy mill, and Jarrod needs to save the animals. But the flight range of the common housefly is five miles. Even if the police believed him, with no evidence, they can’t help. It’s up to Jarrod.
Trained cockroaches survey neighborhood basements. A fly taped to a window makes an excellent sentry. Every beetle, mosquito, caterpillar—don’t eat the fuzzy yellow ones—spider and centipede is his edible sidekick.
Will Jarrod save the dogs? Or is it all too much to swallow?
My Review:
Jarrod is known as the Bug-boy. Why? Well, he loves bugs they are his best friends as he doesn’t have many. But he does have one friend, Gavin who Jarrod can’t understand why he likes hanging out with him as Gavin is very smart and he is not.
Jarrod has been sick for a long time. He has gone to doctor after doctor trying to find out what is the cause of his illness but with no luck. Jarrod has something like seizures. When he has a seizure he has come to look at it as he is having one of his moments.
One day Jarrod is out riding his bike when he has one of his moments and this time he sees dogs and puppies locked up in cages. The mama dogs all look to be very sick. When he comes to or comes out of his moment he realizes what he saw. Someone is running a puppy mill and Jarrod sets out to find out who is running the puppy mill and save the puppies.
When this one episode Jarrod finally figures out what is causing his moments. They happen when he swallows flies or insects. He can see their memories. Jarrod uses his superpowers and the help of his friends, bugs, and human, to do a little investigating around his neighbor to locate the people who are running the puppy mill.
This is not the first book by Michael Stewart that I have read and I am sure it is not the last. I have really and truly liked every book that I have read by Michael and his writing just seems to get better and better with each book I have read. I cannot give enough praise for The Boy Who Swallows Flies. I can say that it was not what I expected when I read the summary. The Boy Who Swallows Flies gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “fly on the wall”. The thought, the writing that went into writing The Boy Who Swallows Flies is so awesome.
I would like to recommend The Boy Who Swallows Flies to anyone who loves a book that is filled with mystery, suspense and a little sleuthing with some insects as partners. The Boy Who Swallows Flies is more than just someone who swallows flies. I recommend it for all ages that is if you can handle bugs and or little “gooeyness”.
Author Bio:
Michael F. Stewart is winner of both the 2015 Claymore Award and the 2014 inaugural Creation of Stories Award for best YA novel at the Toronto International Book Fair.
He likes to combine storytelling with technology and pioneered interactive storytelling with Scholastic Canada, Australia, and New Zealand’s, anti-cyberbullying program Bully For You. In addition to his award winning Assured Destruction series, he has authored four graphic novels with Oxford University Press Canada’s Boldprint series. Publications of nonfiction titles on Corruption and Children’s Rights are published by Scholastic and early readers are out with Pearson Education.
For adults, Michael has written THE SAND DRAGON a horror about a revenant prehistoric vampire set in the tar sands, HURAKAN a Mayan themed thriller which pits the Maya against the MS-13 with a New York family stuck in the middle, 24 BONES an urban fantasy which draws from Egyptian myth, and THE TERMINALS–a covert government unit which solves crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next.
Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he was the Ottawa Public Library’s first Writer in Residence. To learn more about Michael and his next projects visit his website at www.michaelfstewart.com or connect via Twitter @MichaelFStewart.
Michael is represented by Talcott Notch.
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