Audiobook Review: Middle Grade Fun

Matt Sprouts and the Curse of the Ten Broken Toes

by Matthew Eicheldinger

Read by: Barrett Leddy

Publication Date: March 19, 2024 (self published in 2021)

Summary from Goodreads:

After accidentally injuring his neighbor, Matt Sprouts thinks he has “the Curse,” a hometown myth that ruins middle schoolers’ lives. To defeat the Curse, Matt decides he needs to solve the mystery—and FAST!—but that’s not easy to do when you’re entering middle school, keeping track of your little brother, trying to defeat the best soccer team, and oh yeah, not breaking any more toes.

Twelve-year-old Matt Sprouts is in big trouble. He didn’t mean to hurt his neighbor Jenna with that awesome martial arts move—it just happened! Blame it on morning cartoons or Jenna’s lack of coordination. Anyways, getting grounded is the worst thing that could happen, right?

Wrong.

After the incident spirals into a series of downright unfortunate events, it’s decided that Matt has contracted “the Curse,” a hometown myth that has ruined the lives of middle schoolers before him. And as if the Curse weren’t enough, entering sixth grade proves to be just as mysterious—there’s a strange girlfriend, wacky teachers, and . . . c’mon, can Matt’s toes stop breaking PLEASE ?!

Matt decides to take matters into his own hands. Now he just has to break the Curse . . . before all his bones break.

Confession:

This was such a fun audiobook! I loved the story and the characters and the narrator did an awesome job capturing a sixth grader’s voice and emotions. I love the author’s instagram account and all of his little stories about his students (he is a middle school teacher) and I could just tell that all of the love that he has for his students is what makes him a wonderful storyteller.

Barrett Leddy was awesome as the narrator for this story. He captured all of the emotions and the anxiety that Matt has to deal with in this story and managed to sound like a twelve year old doing it. He also does a nice job of portraying the other kids and adults in this story with some great voices, especially for the soccer coaches and one teacher that seems to have it out for Matt. I look forward to listening to him narrate more books in the future.

Matt Sprouts is your typical energetic twelve year old, who sometimes forgets to think before acting. After he accidently breaks his neighbor’s collar bone and ruins her summer, he finds himself under a curse, or so everyone tells him, and he is doomed to break all of his ten toes. I loved all of the various ups and downs in his journey as he comes to accept the curse and works hard to break it. Matt has a great group of friends that even when he isn’t getting along with them, he still has their back and helps them along. Matt has a big heart and the enthusiasm for life to go along with it.

I loved the fact that Matt has an intact family, no divorce, no dead parent, just a normal family. His younger brother was great and just as annoying as younger siblings usually are. But they still have a nice relationship. I really liked Matt’s parents as well. They were supportive and loving and still kept a firm discipline with him and his brother. So many books at this level don’t have this kind of family dynamic and it was so nice to see it here.

The story was super sweet and the writing was great. The kids sounded like kids and the adults were adults. I even enjoyed the sort of romance. Grace is a bossy girl he knew in elementary who has decided that Matt needs to pretend he’s her boyfriend so that they will be considered cool in middle school. Matt gets steamrolled in to the fake relationship, but eventually the feelings get there too. It was very sweet and innocent and fun. The story was perhaps a little on the slow side, and it does take awhile for the whole curse thing to work it’s way out, but I really enjoyed the overall theme of doing what is right, protecting others and facing your problems.

If you know a middle schooler, or if you just enjoy middle grade books this is a book you will enjoy. It is heartwarming and fun and has a cast of characters that you will be rooting for. Looking forward to picking up the next book when I get the time. Highly recommend it to Wimpy Kid fans, it is similar but so much better.