This book puzzles me. Not the story--that's about as straightforward as it gets (barring the issue of when exactly Squidward of all people became interested in competitive sports). SpongeBob, Squidward, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Sandy, and Gary are on a team competing in the Bikini Bottom Relay Race; Squidward seems to think that winning the gold medal is super serious business, and so of course he gets butthurt when the team doesn't train as hard as he'd like. Moral of the story: it's how you play the game that matters, not whether you win or lose. Typical kiddie moral stuff.
My question is: why? Why the crap would someone sit down to write a SpongeBob book that is completely devoid of humor and only serves the purpose of teaching a moral that thousands of other books, television shows, school lesson plans, and actual sports teams already teach? Like, did you miss the part about SpongeBob being a comedy show about absolutely random nonsense? Somehow I don't think the show that brought us the Hash-slinging Slasher and this wonderful scene...
...is the best vehicle for the "let's teach children valuable life lessons" thing.
But whatever. If you want to buy your kid a SpongeBob tie-in that lacks any semblance of humor... here you go.
