The Million Dollar Strike (Million Dollar Series, 4)

Ouchie and Squishy love bowling, even if it isn't the coolest sport. And their favorite place to bowl is Bowl-A-Rama. Squishy especially likes it because it's the perfect setting for a gory horror movie. Then again, he tends to imagine zombies and killer clowns around every corner. When the city council wants to condemn the decrepit bowling alley, Ouchie and Squishy are devastated. Then the boys meet Gazebo Zamboni, the rich, reclusive, totally nutty owner of Bowl-A-Rama. Despite Mr. Z's insistence that the world is ending soon-a ghost told him so-Ouchie and Squishy manage to convince Mr. Z to keep Bowl-A-Rama open. He allows the boys to restore the old alley, and even sponsors a million dollar strike contest to bring in customers. Just when things start looking up, the most nightmarish scenarios of Squishy's overactive imagination come to life. Someone-or something-wants Bowl-A-Rama's doors to close. Forever.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6–Ouchie and Squishy love to go to a rundown bowling alley owned by Mr. Zamboni, who talks to ghosts and believes that the world is going to end on January 1. When the town council wants to condemn Bowl-a-Rama, the boys befriend the eccentric man. They try to spruce it up and draw customers in with a million-dollar contest, but someone is using scare tactics to close the place down. From threatening notes to murder and terrorizing clowns, the story will keep readers guessing who is behind the mystery. Filled with humor and suspense, this fast-paced novel is a good choice for reluctant readers and young R. L. Stine fans.–Taja Alkoriji, Southwest Regional Library, Pembroke Pines, FL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. In this funny send-up of the horror genre, best friends Ouchie and Squishy work to save their hometown's ancient bowling alley, the Bowl-a-Rama. Owned by the eccentric and wealthy Gazebo Zamboni, the Bowl-a-Rama has been condemned by the city council. Narrator Ouchie and the perennially terrified Squishy become friends with Zamboni, despite his weirdness, and work with him to save the bowling alley from destruction, even though it soon becomes clear that someone wants Gazebo Zamboni out of the bowling game. Squishy's encyclopedic knowledge of the horror genre makes him fearful of every plot turn--he constantly wonders, for instance, whether he or Ouchie is the main character of their story, since the main character always lives and the best friend always gets the ax. Young bowlers will enjoy the behind-the-pins descriptions of life at a bowling alley and relish a story in which only the bowling alley is at real risk of death. John GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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