Insomniac's blog

In the book No More Dead Dogs I could not help but laugh when I read the part where the reader gets a first-hand insight into Trudi's mind. Trudi is one of the characters in the book and she is a little bit of a ditz. She has a good heart, but is the typical 7th grade girl. Her life is a little bit too involved with fantasy. By that I mean she thinks that there is a "scene" out there that she wants to be in and can not quite seem to make it in. Trudi also has the problem of falling for a lot of guys. In the book, she falls for the lead character, Wallace Wallace (no, it is not a typo, that is his name). Trudi does have some deeper intellect though, its just covered up by her extroverted ditziness.
I like Trudi. I was a bit like her at that age, so I can identify with her. The rest of the middle school characters I like too. I think Gordon Korman did a fantastic job of developing these characters. From the dialogue the reader can get a sense of not only their individual personalities, but also some of their mannerisms. Korman does not come out and write that so-and-so looked like this, or that the character talked in a certain manner. His characterizations are much more in-depth and are more shadowed than that. The reader has to look for characterizations and paint their own picture of the character. I did that for Trudi.
I pictured Trudi with the BIG Hair and the loud makeup that was popular with girls when I was in Junior High (and unfortunately I must admit I also had the hair an makeup). She would flit around the halls at school and nearly everyone would know her. Trudi would be liked by most people and she could make a friend anywhere. Strange that Korman never says any of these things about Trudi, but I imagine them anyway.
I am about half way through the book right now and had a hard time putting it down to write this. I am impressed with the characters in the book and how Korman has developed them. So far, not what I expected for an easy read. No More Dead Dogs is much more thorough than I had originally thought it would be