It's New! It's Improved! It's Terrible!

Arnold Schlemp is excited to get the basketball shoes he saw on TV for his birthday, but the shoes turn out to be a nightmare they give him painful blisters and, worse still, the kid from the commercial appears at his doorstep. Arnold must figure out how to deal with both the malfunctioning shoes and this unwelcome visitor in this funny middle-grade tale about the gap between advertising hype and real life.