If you have middle grade readers, this book is pretty funny. It’s about a boy named Ben who moves to a new school in Idaho where his school mascot is a potato called Steve the Spud. When Ben accidentally injures the mascot during a cafeteria hot dog-throwing incident while he’s trying to look cool for the basketball team and cheerleaders, he has to become the mascot as punishment for 2 weeks. But he doesn’t want anyone to know it’s him, especially his friends Ellie and Hunter. So he tells them that he's grounded so that they won't expect him to be around to hang out, especially during basketball games. In the midst of this, one of the cheerleaders falls for Ben and asks him to the school dance. But is she the one Ben really wants to go with? 

A web of lies is woven. Hilarity ensues. Lessons are learned.

I took a point off of this one because some of the references in the book felt like kids today might not understand them. For example: The Macarena. That was the popular dance when I was in eighth grade in the mid-90s, but it felt a little hard to believe that a middle school kid 25 years later would still know that dance. There were some other references too that felt a little bit dated. Overall, I thought this was a fun book. I enjoyed it and I read it out loud to my nephews who are 6 and 8, and they liked it too (and greatly appreciated the references to Harry Potter, which never goes out of style).