Totally Disgusting! - Hardcover

Award-winning author Bill Wallace started writing after a tough year of teaching fourth graders. As he says, “Trying to read to a class of 25 kids who aren't listening is downright MISERABLE. Finally, students asked me to tell stories about when I was growing up. I soon ran out of these, so they decided I should make up new stories. I became a writer so I could survive my first year as a teacher. The class loved the stories I wrote for them and persuaded me to get somebody to make us a real book.” Shadow on the Snow, Trapped in Death Cave, and A Dog Called Kitty all started out as books for his students. However, it took ten long years for his first book (A Dog Called Kitty) to be accepted for publication. Since then, this former elementary-school teacher has written over 25 books and won numerous awards. Other favorites include: Red Dog, Buffalo Gal, Danger in Quicksand Swamp, Beauty, Aloha Summer, Watchdog and the Coyotes, and Coyote Autumn.

Wallace was born on August 1, 1947 in Chickasha, Oklahoma. He is married to Carol Ann Priddle (who also taught elementary school) and has three children, Laurie Beth, Amanda Nicole, and Justin Keith. He attended university and graduate school in Oklahoma. 

Grade 1-4-- The title refers to the narrator kitten's attitude toward his name, "Mewkiss," given to him by Jessica, for whom he was a birthday present. Mewkiss feels the silly name dooms him to a life of weakness and helplessness against the vicious rats who have already killed one of his sisters, and who are planning to bite Jessica. When an old cat tells Mewkiss that his name really is "Mukiz," the name of a famous warrior cat in ancient Egypt, the kitten courageously fights off and kills a rat. The plot is as slight as the characterizations in this story in which all animals speak and understand English and imitate human behavior--they laugh, go "to the bathroom," and need reassurance about their specialness. This fantasy lacks the subtlety, the playful satirical humor, and the rich characterization of A. N. Wilson's Stray (Orchard, 1989), which attempts to depict the world from the animal's point of view. It's an easy, readable chapter book on a subject that will appeal to some, but the moralizing is too obvious to be effective, the humans too lightly sketched, and the central four-legged creatures reminiscent of cartoon characters. --Yvonne Frey, Peoria Public Schools, IL
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.