Arthur's Computer Disaster

Arthur's Computer Disaster is the 23rd book in the Arthur Adventure series. It was written and illustrated by Marc Brown, and published by Little, Brown and Company. It is based upon the first half of "Arthur the Wrecker", and it is also the first Arthur Adventure book to be based upon the cartoon as opposed to being a book first and then deciding whether or not to adapt it into a cartoon.

In the story, Arthur Read plays a game, and accidentally breaks his mother's computer. In the end, he finds that it is not, in fact, broken, but he gets into trouble for disobeying his mother's orders to stay off the computer.

Characters

 * D.W. Read
 * Dad
 * Arthur Read
 * Mom
 * Kate Read
 * Pal
 * Buster Baxter
 * The Brain's mom
 * The Brain
 * A computer expert

Differences from the cartoon

 * When Arthur started playing Deep Dark Sea, he was wearing his pajamas. In the cartoon, he was playing on the computer before changing into his pajamas.
 * When Jane tells Arthur and Buster that it's tax season that she needs to use the computer all day, she was making a phone call in the kitchen. In the cartoon, she was on the computer when she told them.
 * Mrs. Powers told the boys that the Brain was not home instead of Mr. Powers.
 * After the Brain couldn't find the problem with the computer, Arthur and Buster then go to the computer repair shop. In the cartoon, they didn't go to the computer repair shop because Jane came home right away, thus making Buster and the Brain leave.
 * After the computer incident, Arthur's mom calls. In the cartoon, she doesn't call.
 * The main character in the game Deep Dark Sea was a bear wearing goggles, a snorkel, air tanks on its back, a swimsuit, and flippers. In the cartoon, the character in the game was wearing a metal diving suit.
 * When Jane uses the computer once again (but decides to play Deep Dark Sea instead of working on her taxes), she grounds Arthur by telling him, "No computer games for a week". In the cartoon, she said, "I'm forbidding you from the computer for a week. Fair?".

Goofs

 * When D.W. tells Arthur that she's afraid that their mom will lose her job and that they will all lose the house and live out on the street and get pneumonia, the text incorrectly used the homophone "ammonia" which refers to NH3 that is condensed to a liquid, when the actual homophone would be "pneumonia", which refers to a disease in the lungs where someone could have trouble breathing.
 * This may have been on purpose; D.W. tends to mispronounce big words due to her age.