"A humorous story filled with fantasy, mystery, and a little bit of adventure. The characters are unique, and the mystery in the plot draws in the eye. Older middle school readers who enjoy books with realistic elements, relationships, college and education humor, or mystery will like reading Something for Nothing.--Kira in Teens Read Too.

"I thought Zachary was pretty cute. He was smarter than anybody else, speaking all kinds of languages. I personally have trouble with Spanish grammar. He will probably have a romance one of these days if he keeps after Willow. She will prefer a guy who is not a wimp about letting her know that he finds her gorgeous. I don't know what to say about Malcolm, except that he was also cute but not what you could call 'eligible.'" --Heather Farlow (Ninth grader, CA)

"Our reference librarian handed the advance review version of the book to me with a grin, so I thought it would be an easy read for a school assignment. It wasn't exactly 'easy reading.' After considering the source for a bit, I got to the point that I could tolerate the sexist, anti-feminist, self-centeredness of Zachary who tells the story. After all, I told myself, he's an unsophisticated young man from a hick town. Then I found the book very funny, even though it has some violence, but unfortunately no sex you could call sex…" --Merry Goldblum (College student, PA)

"Most teen readers would not even notice this, of course, and I was halfway through this sneakily funny book when I suddenly recognized that the author had worked into the dialog lots of famous phrases from classic movies…" --Don Haverford (Older Fellow, AZ)

"…also what I find interesting is that this book can be read aloud smoothly. The text is remarkably musical. I am reading it to my elderly parents." –Nancy Silverman (Teacher, CA)

"Malcolm was a sudden surprise, and not one I found believable at first. However, after a little bit, he got to be as understandable as Zachary (who is actually proud of being a suck-up and flashes his vocabulary). The story made sense, too, what with the same scam all over the TV today…" --Albert Zonta (High school sophomore, CA)

"With that cover I thought that this was going to be a really easy read for my English assignment. 'Read a book instead of playing your video game,' she said. But I had to Google a lot of the words Zachary uses which actually has made me smarter than I intended. The book will get good reviews since it is pretty good, de gustibus, etc." --Bud Frankenheimer (College student, CA)

"…At first I thought this story was going to be about magic, and it was, after a while. But it was also a pretty good mystery. I felt sorry for a lot of the characters and the whole Kuhl family, especially the dad, but not Aunt Bapsie…." --Kellijo Freeman (High school senior, NV)

"…It's about people who are ignorant and willing to believe that you can actually get something valuable without work. Even with the necessary involvement of that mouse, I think there's more truth than fiction to this story. I kept shaking my head. However, it was great fun reading it, and the conclusion may actually jerk a tear or two." --Van Dorman (Grownup, CA)