It only took me 2 months but I finally finished this book. I actually thought I would like this, the premise sounded so interesting, I've never read or heard about a book like this one, but sadly the way this was executed was not for me!

In hopes of winning the $500 prize for a race across the countyr, Waldo Baron's parents turn their house into a flying one. Their plans however are cut shoert when Rose Blackwood, sister of notorious villain Benedict Blackwood, kidnaps the family and their house to free her brother from jail. Rose, however, is not exactly who she seems. Can Waldo figure out how to save his family and keep Benedict in jail? Hilarious from start to finish, this book is filled with action-packed adventure, humor, and will delight readers. The characters are likable, entertaining, and pull the reader into the story. Fans of humor, fantasy, adventure, or who have always wanted a flying house will want to pick this book up and will eagerly want to read book 2. Recommended for any collection.

This is a funny, strange, random, odd, hilarious adventure story. Middle school boys and girls are going to be cracking up all over the place as they read this way-out-there hilarious book.

Such a cute middle-school-age book! Perfect I would say for 10+ age group, and written well for that age.

Even as an adult I enjoy reading children and teen books - especially when they are so well written that any age can read them. I could not get into this one no matter how much I tried. I found it just too simplistic and not as interesting as I thought it would be. Thank you for the opportunity to read this one.

An excellent fun and adventurous book for young readers! It was an easy read but also kept me engaged because the story was so imaginative an well written. I really look forward to sharing this with young readers and will keep an eye out for the next books in the series.

Very much enjoyed this exciting and interesting adventure.

I felt it was enjoyable, but my daughter (difficult to please) said it capture her attention quick enough, and so she did not finish.

One of the most interesting things I caught about this book was that it is set at the beginning in 1891. I love the strange dream that our main character, a male child of undeterminate age has, then what his birthday present from his parents is just made me laugh. Oh boy, the name this little boy is forced to suffer with had me shaking my head. Oh my, I could not stop laughing in the first chapter alone. Interesting to find out they're based in Arizona. That's a hoot. But, the squirrel and the prairie dog in the dream make sense now. I'm not quite sure what to make of the mother and father who love to do the strangest experiments. I suppose I really should say, inventions, not experiments. When our young man gets upset with his parents, I love their response to why they did this to their home and why they thought he'd want to go along. "This is our chance to be a part of history," said P. "And we can do it as a family." is the ultimate response he gets. What happens once the Barons get to Chicago just had me shaking my head. Oh boy. What contest does the Baron Family enter into and what happens when they do? if you want to know what happens in this lovely child friendly chapter book, you'll have to read it and see if your child will like it. It was amusing for me as an adult.

RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT FOR A FAIR/HONEST REVIEW and REVIEWER FOR Bloggin' With M. Brennan.

This was a delightful book. Part impossible science fiction, part adventure story, but mostly madcap humor, this one could have been written by the people who invented the old Looney Tunes gag about defying the laws of gravity because they never studied law. It was just amusing and strange, the kind of book that kids would surely enjoy. It would be a great read-aloud. Thrilling adventure can be extremely funny, and this book proves it. There is a subtle lesson about giving people a chance and things not always being what they seemed laced into the narrative, but it's sub-textual. Highly recommended for children and adults with a sense of humor.

"Sometimes life is even better than a strange dream."

Complete with a lot of grumbling, childish humour and an aunt who is part egg, this middle grade book is as humorous as it gets! Examples include wacky words like 'dastardly', amazing sentences like 'Sometimes it seems like my father's cheese has slipped off his cracker' and the signature habit of the author - first suggesting something and putting a figurative device to make a clear picture in the readers' mind and then jumping to saying that it actually happened ("His hair is bright white and sticks straight up in the air as though he's just been struck by lightening. It's been that way since he was first struck by lightening seven years ago. Since then, he's been struck by lightening nineteen times. It's the darnedest thing."). Honestly, I've not found myself laughing out loud while reading middle-grade, partly because I don't read it a lot and the ones I read are pretty serious, but this book was a fun treat and I really enjoyed the nonsensical humor that it was filled with.

The characters although admittedly very mainstream were flamboyant and quirky, especially the narrator, Waldo. I liked Rose's character but her being the typical villain-with-a-heart-of-gold didn't quite stick with me and I would've liked it better if she was actually a villain and not someone who was trying really hard to pretend to be one. The use of second person from the narrator made everything more interesting, relatable, humorous and imaginable:

"Have you ever had a bee fly into your trousers? If so you've probably done my parents' happy dance."

The book was fast paced and adventurous, I'd even say that Roald Dahl's fans would enjoy this because of all the wackiness (obsessed with this word), and that says something, considering he's one of the evergreen children fiction authors ever. The plot celebrated differences in our families, parents and even ourselves as a person which was great. There were important lessons that stood out in this book like "Never underestimate your parents' achievements - they always have more to give than we can think of.", "Be yourself.", "Some times the people who we idolize and admire the most are just that - people, like the rest of us." which I think would be great for younger readers. However, at the same time I think they weren't saliently expressed and could've been better integrated in the plot.

The illustrations put me off a bit because they weren't formatted properly but oh well, we can leave that part out because that's the publisher's mistake. One thing that really bothered me on the author's part was the inconsistency in the way the 10 year old narrator spoke - one moment quirky and completely childish and then the next giving advice to Rose's character like an adult would, rather irritating.

Nevertheless, this was a short amusing read that I quite enjoyed!

I loved it! The main character was this clumsy, chubby little boy. His parents turn their house into a flying machine to win this contest, but they are kidnapped by the sister of the most ruthless criminal in America. She plans to help them win so she can steal the money and then help her brother escape.

And boom, let the adventures begin. This book is loaded with adventure and it's hilarious. I had more than one occasion where I had to read something a few times because we were all laughing so hard. That doesn't happen too often.

I love that the immediate family goes by letter abbreviations. Waldo Baron is W.B., Ma is M and Pa is P. The only time W.B. is called anything else is Wide Butt by Shorty, a girl W.B. meets in Chicago. His parents spend most of the story tied up in the control room. His dad is tied to the steering wheel and his comments are peppered with "Wheeeee!" because he loves to spin - lol.

The graphics are by Agnieszka Grochalska, a polish graphics artist. My copy messed up the pictures, but from what I could see, and it's here on the cover, she did a very nice job.

I see there's a 2nd book in the works, I really hope I can get my hands on that. Even Ivan was into this one, and he never listens to me read.

Middle school boys and girls are going to be cracking up all over the place as they read this way-out-there hilarious book. There will be knee slapping, falling out of chairs, and outbursts of giggling as they “fly” through the pages of this story. “Sometimes laughing manically feels really good.” The middle school humor is what makes the book so good. It is one liners, puns, word plays, jokes, slapstick and just plain nonsense.

The main character, Waldo Baron, or more affectionately simply called W.B., is a very lovable character. The first thing middle schoolers will love is that W.B. has to be the clumsiest child on the planet. He is constantly tripping, dropping, falling, stumbling, running into, crashing into, blundering, fumbling and misstepping throughout the story. He takes it all in stride and doesn’t let his lack of grace stop him. He and the other characters are constantly getting themselves into messes. Also, W.B.’s parents are nuts. They are really what you would call socially awkward and have no clue as to what is going on and don’t care unless it involves one of their inventions. The interactions between W.B. and his parents, although exaggerated, add more humor to the story. No one really knows what the other one is talking about and everyone is do easily distracted that they never follow the flow of the conversation. This leads to more problems than solutions. W.B. is a character that the readers will love. With crazy inventor parents, his world is full of adventures. Sequel?

The plot of the story is middle school crazy too. A flying house designed to compete in a race around the country to pick up specific products and return to Chicago to win $500. When the Baron Estate picks up an unwanted passenger, Rose Blackwood, things start getting really crazy. Rose is the sister of the notorious outlaw Benedict Blackwood that is always being chased by “Sheriff Hoyt Graham and his deputies.
“Benedict Blackwood, who was said to be so mean and nasty that if you made him mad in a dream, he’d knock your lights out when he woke up.” That’s one bad dude! Rose hijacks the flying estate and kidnaps W.B.’s family so they can help her rescue her brother. They meet a bunch of trouble and a colorful array of characters. Yosemite Sam move over!

This book is one crazy ride. It is a mixed-up, science fiction, funny western. Bower combines all of these to create THE MAGNIFICENT FLYING BARON ESTATE.

I am seriously considering using this in my classroom as a read aloud. I believe my 6th graders will really get a kick out of W.B.’s outlandish adventures. They will love everything about this book.

Waldo is every kid out there who has odd parents that embarrass him. In his case they're scientists who cause so much havoc with their inventions, one of which enables their house to fly. This kid would rather read about adventures than go on them but when his parents set their house afloat and enter into a nationwide scavenger hunt he has no choice but to go with the flow. Hugely hilarious and a wonderful read Waldo becomes the star in his own adventure whether he wants to or not.

This book is so funny. It is a kids book, but as an adult, I really enjoyed it. The "villain" was so lovable, which is weird for the bad guy. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to read a fun book.

The Barons are an enchanting family of haphazard inventors and the boy who must live with them. It's not a deep story line but so enchantingly fun to read! This title should be on every library shelf and shown to every juvenile boy and girl who love to imagine on a large scale! My nine year old nephew devoured this over the weekend and kept talking about all the amazing things you could do in a "floating" house. Well done Eric, keep the titles coming!

Fun and whimsical, kids will absolutely love this book and the adventures of WB and his family. With inventors for parents, life is anything but boring.

This is a winner all the way around. There is adventure as well as morals to be taught. Great addition to an elementary school library and a good idea as a class read aloud book. This book will keep the reader engaged and entertained.

I read this aloud to my younger kids each night for a week and they were HOOKED. Imaginative, clever, and hilarious at times. Bravo!

This is marketed as a Middle School age book; I believe it will appeal to a much younger audience than that.
This was a weird little book that I literally read in 2 1/2 hours. Because it was from NetGalley and therefore an ARC, it had really crappy formatting [that I hope didn't make it into the actual Kindle version that is being released now]. It also has pictures in it; not that you can tell what any of them actually are in this version. It was mostly just pages of one or part of one image [between one and eight pages per set of pictures]. Again, I hope that this isn't how the Kindle books that are being sold are like as well because it was very frustrating and annoying to be honest. You never really knew what the pictures where trying to convey.

The story is just okay - a young boy [in the "Old West" days] who is quite possibly the clumsiest boy in the universe and who doesn't understand [or really try to understand] his scientific inventing parents, wakes up one day to find the house flying across the United States. That starts the adventure for the Baron Family. And what could have been a seriously cute book about adventure turned into a weird book that was filled with whining and clumsiness and a lot of weird awkwardness that made it a struggle to finish.

I would not buy this book for my middle-schoolers, nor do I think I would buy it for the younger set as well. What could of been a good story ends up really almost insulting the readers intelligence and belief in a fantasy world. I was VERY disappointed.