Wishin' and Hopin' By Wally Lamb ✔✔✔✔

This book just caught my eye when I was in Bay County Library - a little book, written by Wally Lamb, and a Christmas story - so I picked it up. Well, I read it in one day, laughed till I cried at least twice, and enjoyed some good chuckles too. It's the story of 10-year-old Felix Funicello, distant cousin of Annette Funicello, and his adventures at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial School, especially as the 5th grade class prepares for their Christmas pageant.

There's Felix, who's small and very innocent, and doesn't understand the off-colour jokes he's told, the supply teacher who comes from Quebec, Rosalie, who is the class pain in the ass,Zhenya, a Russian immigrant with " big bazoom-booms" and a hilarious accent so funny I had to read it aloud, Felix's Mom and her adventure at the Pillsbury Bake-Off - wow, in some 254 pages, Wally Lamb packs in a lot.

I won't forget this one too soon! The pageant itself is the funniest since John Irving's "A Prayer For Owen Meany", which had me in stitches while driving from KL to Sudbury for a hockey tournament and Karen and David wondered why Mom was crying......