BOOK NAME: Boomtown
AUTHOR: Nowen N. Particular

In the state of Washington, one can find the not-so-quiet little town known simply as Boomtown. The town isn’t named for springing up in a few weeks during a gold rush, the meaning is quite literal. In Boomtown, the home of Chang’s Famous Fireworks Factory, exploding just about anything is everyone’s favorite pastime.

Reverend Arthur Button and his family have moved to Boomtown for the peacefulness of small-town life. They did not quite get what they expected. Right from the start, Boomtown, and its wacky citizens, turn out to be much more than the Buttons bargained for. Upon stopping for a quick view of the fireworks factory that is Boomtown’s heart and soul, Reverend Button finds himself nearly beheaded by a rocket being tested by the factory employees. The rocket, which was unintentionally launched by his accident-prone daughter, eventually blasted a research building to smithereens. But perhaps the thing that bewildered the new pastor of the local church most was the town’s reaction, people congratulating him left and right for his family’s part in the destruction.

The oddities don’t stop there. The Button family is given a huge box of fireworks as a welcoming gift, a container with enough explosives to level a house. Even something as simple and ordinary as a haircut turns crazy when Mr. Button is almost smashed by a barber chair flung by the local barber, a massive man with severe anger management issues. The most unusual, and troubling, discovery is made on Mr. Button’s first Sunday as pastor. It seems that all of Boomtown’s 24 previous pastors died from freak accidents, almost as if a curse looms over the ministry. That would explain why Reverend Button was almost killed twice already.

As Reverend Button continues to preach, all the while having near brushes with death, citizen’s belongings start disappearing all over Boomtown. The robberies are the start of a mystery that will add to the excitement, and the insanity, of Boomtown.

Boomtown was a decent book. The main problems I had were some slow parts, such as most of Mr. Button’s first Sunday of preaching. Other than that, there are plenty of wild adventures the Button family experiences, enough to keep a reader interested. The most unique thing about this book is the pictures, drawn to look like actual photographs. The illustrator’s life-like renditions of the events in the book made them seem more real. The pictures also helped me get a general understanding of what the characters and the events looked like. Some even matched the images I had formed in my head of the events. This book is part of a series, so if you like it enough, you may want to read the other books, which should be coming soon.