Okay, so you don’t need me to tell you these books are recommended for school libraries.  Their legendary popularity speaks for itself.  However, let it be known that my recommendation has more to do with how popular I know them to be with kids than with my own opinion of the writing.  When it comes down to it, it’s the kids’ opinions that matter.  It took SSBRC to get me to finally read a complete one of these books, with the impetus that it would be good for me to educate myself as to what it is the kids are reading.  The character, and the situations he faces, are relateable, but the writing babbles on like a rambling string-of-consciousness.  Even reading silently, I felt out of breath, as if I’d spent two hours listening to a motor-mouth who doesn’t stop for breath, or require any response, but just shares non-stop every thought in his/her head, no matter what tangents they go down.