Partners in Slime
Belinda O’Keefe
Scholastic
Pub. 2021

January 19, 2022

There is a really cool new ride called the Steel Beast opening soon at the local amusement park.  Jake and Cooper are desperate to go to the grand opening, but their parents won’t give them the money to go, and they don’t have any money either. They are desperate to go to this grand opening. They just have to be there. So, they decide to figure out a way to make the money so they could be sitting on the ride on opening day.

They thrash around tons of ideas in their heads. Then it hits them – Jake’s annoying little sister always makes slime with her friends. Since kids really like slime, they should sell slime! They decide that, to sell slime, they will need the perfect recipe. They try many recipes before they finally get the right one and start selling slime to the kids at school!

It is a hit, and they are making more and more money, that is, until Jake’s annoying little sister also starts making slime. And the bad thing is that her slime is better than theirs. They end up losing all their customers to Jake’s annoying little sister. But that doesn’t discourage them. They end up going to Cooper’s uncle’s house. He’s a scientist who likes working on crazy projects. He gives Jake and Cooper this magnetic glow-in-the-dark powder to put into their slime recipe. It works great. They are making money again. That is, until they run out of the powder…. What will they do now? They still need more money to get to the grand opening of the Steel Beast. I think I’ve said enough. The rest of the story is for you to find out.

Partners in Slime is a fun story. I like how the kids always keep trying and trying to do what they need to do to get to the amusement park. They never give up. I also like how, when you read the story, you feel like you are right there helping them.

I would like to add that I used to think that my little sister was annoying, but when I was reading about Jake’s little sister and how awful she treated her older brother, it made me change my mind a little bit. Jake’s little sister is so annoying, she really makes my little sister sound good. There were some parts in the book that I really wanted to teleport into the book and start yelling at the little sister for blaming everything on Jake and Cooper.

Belinda O’Keefe has also written other books. She wrote The Day the Plants Fought Back which was nominated and shortlisted for the NZ Book Awards for Young Children and Adults. She also won the Tom Fitzgibbons award for her book A Recipe for Disaster, which I actually wonder if it is this book, and they changed its name. She also wrote Trouble with a Capital T.

• Charlie is 13 and lives in Hamilton.