Daniel Pinkwater

Larry's shenanigans at the local ice cream shop lead him to unexpected celebrity in this fourth book about the adventures of the lifeguard polar bear of Bayonne, New Jersey. When our ursine hero eats 250 pounds of ice cream at Cohen's Cones, the resultant publicity leads to a partnership with the Iceberg Ice Cream company, and the development of the "Larry Bar."

With all the hilarious dialogue and droll artwork for which this series is known, Ice Cream Larry should delight the Pinkwaters' show more many fans. I myself was thrilled to see a few Melville references here, from Larry carrying a copy of Moby Dick around with him, to his answering Mildred's requests with an "I would prefer not to." A humorous children's book which quotes Bartleby the Scrivener? It doesn't get any better than that! show less

This collection of young adult fiction by Daniel Pinkwater offers a generous sampling of the author's favorite subject matters. Aliens, misfits, weird people, rebellious students, and fat men all have places of honor among these tales.

In Alan Mendelsohn, Boy from Mars, Leonard Neeble is such an outcast at school that even the nerds make fun of him. Just when he's given up hope on ever being happy, along comes Alan Mendelsohn, a new kid who seems to enjoy annoying teachers and blowing off the show more cool kids. Leonard and Alan become quick friends, and in no time at all Alan is showing Leonard how to skip school, smoke cigars, lift objects with his mind, contact alien races, and learn to enjoy who he is without the approval of others.

Slaves of Spiegel, simply put, is about a race of fat people that forces other races into a cooking contest, while The Snarkout Boys are a group of young lads who "snark out" at night and have many bizarre adventures. The Last Guru, is about, well, the last guru. Go figure.

My personal favorite, however, and the grand example of Daniel Pinkwater's bizarre brand of genius, is Young Adult Novel. The story revolves around Wild Dada Ducks, a self-proclaimed dadaist group consisting of Charles the Cat, the Honorable Venustiano Carranza (President of Mexico), The Indiana Zephyr, Captain Colossal, and Igor. They spend their time performing dadaist plays and acts of pointless revolution at their high school, and writing parody young adult novels featuring the fictional character Kevin Shapiro. But when they discover that there actually is a student in the school named Kevin Shapiro, they immediately take him under their wing despite his protests, ignorant to the possibility that their own creation might rebel against them. After all, that is dada.

Very few children's authors, past or present, can successfully inject this much original wackiness into their stories while simultaneously teaching much needed life lessons that many books never touch on. Granted, not all of his young adult novels are meant to inform, but even the ones meant purely for entertainment can't help but leave you feeling better for the experience. Children, young adults, and even some grownups could do with a little Pinkwater influence.

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL: Young Adult Novel is one of my most cherished childhood books. It is the story of a small group of surrealist nonconformists who call themselves the Wild Dada Ducks and spend their time staging impromptu performance art pieces, printing off irrelevant business cards, and writing stories about a boy named Kevin Shapiro. When a new kid with the same name as their fictional idol transfers to their school, they decide to elevate his status. But what happens when your own creation rejects your praise? That, as they say, is Dada. Bizarre and hilarious while remaining grounded in reality (to an extent), Young Adult Novel is the quintessential Pinkwater novel, and should be readily enjoyed by readers of any age. show less

Though I enjoyed this book, you should probably know that Mr. Pinkwater occasionally reads his reviews and is prone to instructing those reviewers he does not find 'favorable.' Here's the goodreads review page: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.html?id=3295764840&page=2&ref_=pe_...
and here's my blog page with his comments: https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2020/05/26/adventures-of-a-dwergish-girl-by-dani...

I originally rated this book 4 stars, but in good conscience, such bad, personally show more directed behavior merits a downrating, because I can never look at this book again without a yucky mass of feels.

I had lizards when I was young, so it stands to reason that a book titled “Lizard Music” would appeal. With allergies to fur and feather, but a fondness for all things non-Hexopod, lizards were an obvious option (well, to me at least; I can hear you dissenters. Let this be a warning to those with children). I remember Barney, one of my anoles, who looked something like this:



(more pics at my blog: https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2019/11/08/lizard-music-by-d-manus-pinkwater/)

So if you say to me, “hey, here’s this book about an eleven-year-old kid whose parents leave him alone on vacation and he ends up doing kid things like staying up late and watching tv, where he discovers a late-night local program of lizard musicians. He also rides the bus to a neighboring city, goes to the zoo, meets the Chicken Man and his chicken sidekick, discovers Hidden Things, and travels to Lizard Island,” I’m down with that, especially if the plot doesn’t devolve into the lizards eating the kid or the chicken.

I rather liked this. I found it through Beth’s suggestion during a discussion on [b:Interstellar Pig|24899|Interstellar Pig (Interstellar Pig #1)|William Sleator|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562634272l/24899._SY75_.jpg|25676], another 1970s era book where parents are conveniently removed from the picture, allowing for Adventures. Victor is particularly logical in his approach to the world, and instead of feeling left out that he wouldn’t be going with his parents to Colorado, he is thankful they won’t be taking him and making him look at scenery: “I mean, it is very nice if there are some big mountains or something in the background while you are doing something, but just standing around all day and saying, ‘What a lovely view,’ strikes me as sort of dumb.'”

Unfortunately, or fortunately as it turns out, his sister, Leslie, forgot about a camping trip with some hippie friends, so she asks him if he minds if she leaves. He offers his thoughts: “I went outside and told them I’d be surprised if they ever got out of the state in a wreck like that. They all said stuff like “Far out!” and “Heavy!” and all that dumb talk, and drove off in a black cloud of burning oil.” No anxiety. In fact, he strategically types out ten letters to his parents, one for each day they are gone. “They don’t have typing in the sixth grade, so it was hard to get the letters looking right.”

I loved the tone of the narration, and the subtle humor, particularly in a recurrent call-back to Walter Cronkite (!). Victor’s isn’t mean about what he notices, but he is starting to get curious about how the ‘real world’ works. He displays some interesting problem-solving, although I have to say that I wouldn’t have arrived at quite the same conclusions (“I learned something–you can eat egg shells”). I also applaud his adventuresome spirit and self-reliance, such as when he decides to make scrambled eggs and take the bus to the zoo.

The lizards themselves are interesting. The grown-up me wishes they were a bit more lizardly. The young me would have enjoyed them. Both mes found/would have found the lizards’ tendency to name themselves ‘Reynold’ hilarious. But, in retrospect, it’s probably a solid way to introduce the idea of an alien-looking culture while still generating empathy. The ending comes quickly, and perhaps feels a little bit too quick of a wrap-up given everything Victor has learned about the lizards, and about being adventuresome.

Had I been reading this when I was ten, I would have quite enjoyed it. Now, however, I have a reservation, and that is the Chicken Man, who is almost literally the Magical Negro for this story. The interesting thing, however, is that Victor acknowledges this in the text in a brief discussion on his personal history of race relations. I also appreciated that Pinkwater does tricky and clever things with Chicken Man’s character, so that he portrays a variety of personalities (perhaps like an inconsistent Coyote spirit).

I particularly loved when Chicken Man was interviewed on the news as part of a ‘man-on-the-street’ opinion on whether or not public employees should have the right to strike, and he gave an extremely literate and concise nutshell of the challenge between public safety and the rights of collective bargaining (seriously! wth, 1970s!). So I think I’m inclined to forgive it, as his role as ‘guide’ (as the business card said) was honestly well done, and the relationship between the two characters hit both compassionate and respectful notes.

Overall, a fun read. Shout-out of thanks to Sarah B! show less

Yay for Goodreads, for community reviews. There's no way to evaluate books like this objectively. Professional critics wouldn't really have much of value to say here. Even though some of my GR friends rate this lower, I love it and highly recommend it.

And that's the theme of the book. Everyone can be an artist, even if the only ppl who appreciate their work are themselves (Bear), or posthumous coffee mug designers (Van Gogh). And everyone can be a critic.

And in my case, since I happen to show more love [a:D.B. Johnson|3280243|D.B. Johnson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1374025549p2/3280243.jpg] and often enjoy Pinkwater, I loved this book. I love it even more than [b:The Dot|825377|The Dot|Peter H. Reynolds|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1363702319s/825377.jpg|2919579], which was a darn good book. I love the gray and proper and judgemental gentlemen, and their fate. I love Bear's self-confidence and zest, and his neck-piece (even though I don't know if it's meant to be a tie, a scarf, or nothing in particular). I love the development of the painting.

I wish more ppl would read this book and also discover for themselves the joy of creativity. show less