The Snarkout Boys and The Avocado of Death

Pinkwater has to be the only "children's author" whose average reading audience is 40 years old. This is one of those laugh-till-you-cry-and-can't-see-the-page books.

The Snarkout Boys are Walter Galt and Winston Bongo. They make friends with a girl, Bently Saunders Harrison Matthews, called Rat. Snarking Out is sneaking out of your house late at night and going to the Snark Theater, which plays movies all night long, and then sneaking back into the house.

Rat invites them back to her house one night for breakfast (she is also a snarker) and during the meal her uncle disappears. They are determined to find him and are aided by Osgood Sigerson, the world's greatest detective, and his sidekick, Dr. Ormond Sacker.

There's a crime. There's a master criminal. There's a fat man in a fez. Fans of LIZARD MUSIC, take note: Chicken
Man is here, and his chicken dances while Daniel Pinkwater defies gravity to bring you a mind-boggling feast. As the
Wizard of Comedy transports the Snarkout Boys and Rat through the tunnel under North Aufzoo Street to the warmth
of Beanbenders and into a sci-fi mystery adventure that is like a dream (but no one is sleeping), you will meet some
strange characters, and learn much about the versatile avocado

My second favorite book of all time! So multi-leveled, deep and nuanced, with highly-quirky, richly-detailed characters in the service of an unusual but effective mystery.

After reading "The Neddiad" and "The Iggyssey" and enjoying them both immensely I decided I needed to read some more Daniel Pinkwater. So I picked up this book. It was an enjoyable book; I liked it. If you like Pinkwater's writing, you'll like this book. I did notice though after reading three of Pinkwater's book; he has a very distinctive writing style.

Walter and Winston Bongo are two boys who are bored to death in school and decide to Snark Out. Snarking out means that you sneak out of the house late at night and go to the Snark Theater to watch movies. They think they are the only ones who do this. That is until they meet Rat. Rat has been snarking out forever and she invites the boys over for breakfast. Rat's family is crazy and show more bizarre to the extreme and when Rat's avocado loving Uncle goes missing the boys are enlisted to help find him. Of course there are a ton of crazy characters; like Walter's avocado obsessed father and his mother who continually experiments with different types of tuna casserole for dinner.

This was a great, fun read. As I am finding to be the Pinkwater norm, the characters are unique and crazy, the plot is twisted and strange, and the imagination factor is off the scales. A quick read and hilarious; I think all ages will enjoy this book.

The only thing that bugged me a bit was that Walter's dialogue and thoughts were very similar to Neddie's from "The Neddiad"...this is odd because these books were written over 20 years apart. It make me wonder if Pinkwater uses a similar dialogue and character style for all of his young boys. Also Rat reminded me a lot of Iggy, the girl character in "The Iggyssey". That being said I still really enjoyed the book.

I will definitely read more of Pinkwater's books. I did not think this book was as good as "The Neddiad" though. Despite that this book was great fun to read. show less

I have read this book probably 15 times since I discovered it in middle school. This time, Age read it aloud to my belly. It was, if anything, more perfect than ever. What a weird, delightful book. One of the most perfect ending paragraphs I have ever read.

Rated five stars for how much I loved it as a kid. The words "Looky, Walter!" will always have a very specific and special meaning because of it. It didn't have the same impact on Adult Me, but it was still fun. Daniel Pinkwater is a treasure.

I thought about it, and I decided this is my book that, if you don't like it, you are dead to me.