The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure

Selected - along with Cedric the Forester, The Windy Hill, The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles, and The Great Quest - as a Newbery Honor Book in 1922, the year the award was first established, William Bowen's The Old Tobacco Shop is the kind of surreal children's fantasy I generally associate with the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Think Alice in Wonderland meets Aladdin, with a pipe-smoking five-year-old, a little hunchback tobacco-shop proprietor, a crippled old maid, a Punch statue come to life, a mute circus performer, two Old Codgers, and a plump Churchwarden, all setting out on a magical adventure together...

If this sounds a trifle... odd... that's because it is. And yet, somehow, despite this show more cast of most unlikely heroes, and a narrative that zigs and zags like nobody's business, The Old Tobacco Shop somehow hangs together, delivering an entertaining, and sometimes quite surprising, adventure story. Opening in a city on the banks of the Patapsco (Baltimore, I assume), it follows the adventures of young Freddie, dispatched by his father to the Old Tobacco Shop for some tobacco. Here Freddie meets proprietor Toby Littleback, his lame Aunt Amanda, and a host of other characters. And here Freddie encounters the magical Chinese tobacco that will launch them all upon an astonishing quest to find Correction Island.

The narrator is somewhat obtrusive (in that Victorian way), and I can't imagine a children's novel involving a five-year-old smoking a pipe winning many kudos these days, but there is still an undeniable charm to the story, and the reader will want to follow along to the conclusion, which Bowen keeps rather ambiguous. Recommended for those looking to read the entire body of Newbery books, or researching the evolution of children's fantasy literature. show less

What a trip. It starts off a little dull, but amusing, because there’s expert-level trolling of a young child. (It’s funny, and I imagine it would go over the heads of little kids. Was that the author’s intent?) Then the little boy does some heavy drugs, and everybody starts hardcore tripping. (I did expect it to be a “it was all a dream” ploy, and that is irritating. But I believe it can interpreted both ways. At the end of the book the dad basically says, “boy, if you’re going to be gone for six months at a time, maybe you shouldn’t be going back to that shop.” Good stuff. Vague enough so can believe everything happened exactly as described if you want to.)
So, yes, it had its unexpected, fantastic quirks. I think my show more favorite was how our heroes were doing battle with bloodthirsty pirates and groups of scholars for the Institute of Piratical Research (?) were pitching a fit because they wouldn’t have any specimens left for their exhibits. However, the crux of the book seems to be relying on people’s desires to change their flaws, and kind of showcases that as a positive. The ugly single aunt gets to be beautiful with children, the hunchback gets a straight back, the dumb-witted fool gets intelligence, etc. And they only agree to give up their gifts (with reluctance) because one member gets sick, and that’s the only way to save him.
Ultimately, the point of their whole endeavor is to “be normal”, and the book kind of teaches that’s the best way to be. (I got irked with how often it was mention that it’s such a shame the aunt is so nice, but so ugly -therefore she could never be married.) In my opinion, the author needed to keep up with his whimsy and retool the final theme a bit.
So if that were changed, I’d recommend this book quite highly just for its sneaky wit. show less

This is just the thing to while away the wee hours when you can't sleep on your dead sister's birthday and your other books require concentration.