The major concern here is a big one. It is important to take it very seriously. Please make sure to read the next section as well to get the whole picture.
We have all seen or heard about the youth group that went too far in “trying to be cool” or fun or exciting and ended up far too light on the Gospel… the whole reason it was there. The major concern with this book is related. This book is far too willing to push the limit to be funny. While it is not to the level of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, “Big Nate”, “Dork Diaries” and others we have warned parents about, it is far from what we would hope for from a Christian title. A perfect example comes at one point where grandpa prays over Thanksgiving. The author uses it to jump back and forth every other line between serious lines of prayer and outright flippant jokes.
Average Boy talks of helping someone after school, but we soon find out he is mainly interested in her cookies. He makes a joke about sneaking into the neighbor’s pool. He puts mom’s healthy dinner in his pockets and throws it away outside. He gives gifts to family, but many are selfishly motivated. He falls asleep at church. He and his friend completely ignore parents warning to not stay up too late (stay up all night). Dad also hides eating chocolate and turkey from mom.
Related to this, Average Boy’s attitude and actions in school are far from what a Christian would want to put in front of our children. He zones out often and even falls asleep for entire class periods. He interrupts and disrupts class. We hear comments like, “Don’t adults know students use summer to delete our brains of school knowledge and make room for important stuff like video games and song lyrics?”. He fails to read a book for class despite having plenty of time and ends up completely making up an oral book report. There is also a scene in the lunchroom where all teaches who are supposed to be supervising are on their phones on social media (which comes across as an unfair shot at educators).
Another really sad point to make is that the author has the main character doing good many good and loving deeds in a youth group challenge, but his focus always goes back to winning a video game console. At the end he makes the right choice, but for the vast majority of the book this is a real bummer and seems so unnecessary.
A couple additional items to be aware of:
A comment is made about sports being “like a religion” in Texas, especially football.
Wrestling on TV is mentioned.