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Neddie & Friends #3
Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl
Big Audrey is a girl . . .
with cat s whiskers . . .
and sort of cat s eyes.
But, is there an other cat-whiskered, sort of cat-eyed girl?
Big Audrey waves goodbye to her friends Iggy and Neddie, Seamus, and Crazy Wig, in Los Angeles and hitches a ride with bongo-playing-while-driving Marlon Brando across the country to Poughkeepsie, New York, city of mystery. She finds she has questions needing answers and a bit of inter-plane-of-existence traveling to do.
Big Audrey and her telepathic friend Molly zigzag off on an incredibly strange and kooky adventure, and solve the mystery of the cat-whiskered doppelganger."
with cat s whiskers . . .
and sort of cat s eyes.
But, is there an other cat-whiskered, sort of cat-eyed girl?
Big Audrey waves goodbye to her friends Iggy and Neddie, Seamus, and Crazy Wig, in Los Angeles and hitches a ride with bongo-playing-while-driving Marlon Brando across the country to Poughkeepsie, New York, city of mystery. She finds she has questions needing answers and a bit of inter-plane-of-existence traveling to do.
Big Audrey and her telepathic friend Molly zigzag off on an incredibly strange and kooky adventure, and solve the mystery of the cat-whiskered doppelganger."
268 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
29 people are currently reading
397 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Pinkwater
156 books414 followersDaniel Manus Pinkwater is an author of mostly children's books and is an occasional commentator on National Public Radio. He attended Bard College. Well-known books include Lizard Music, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Fat Men from Space, Borgel, and the picture book The Big Orange Splot. Pinkwater has also illustrated many of his books in the past, although for more recent works that task has passed to his wife Jill Pinkwater.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
September 11, 2017
Pinkwater is one-of-a-kind. I love his work in small doses - especially his picturebooks about Irving and Muktuk. His novels for young teens, well, I dunno. I couldn't get into the first book of this series, The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization, but since this one starts with a recap explanation and so does stand alone, I decided to try it. Anyway, I've not much to say. I like & admire but won't remember & don't want more. :shrug:
Oh, except I do like the tributes to other cultural references, esp. to Where the Wild Things Are. And I think I want to retire to Poughkeepsie.
Oh, except I do like the tributes to other cultural references, esp. to Where the Wild Things Are. And I think I want to retire to Poughkeepsie.
September 21, 2010
if i am very, very good, then someday when i die i will be reincarnated inside a daniel pinkwater book. as one of the odd characters, of course, not the dreaded normal ones.
January 29, 2018
Daniel Pinkwater is a genius!
December 26, 2019
As with any Pinkwater, Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl was a bizarre delight.
I love that each of the books in this series, whilst absolutely feeling like a series, are quite distinct from one another in style and their particular brand of bizarre. Here, that meant aliens and alternate planes of existence, as opposed to the ghosts and rock heists of the other books. And I really liked it! It was fun, I liked the main characters, and I really liked the supporting cast.
After the modelling of the previous novels on The Iliad and The Odyssey, I was curious to know what role Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl would get. As it turns out, it was a plethora of references—some more obvious than others—to fairytales and folklore and just otherwise well-known stories like The Wizard of Oz.
If Pinkwater adds anymore books to this series, as suggested by the note at the end of the novel, then I'll happily read them. Otherwise, I'm so pleased to have read this trilogy and Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl sends it out on a high note.
I love that each of the books in this series, whilst absolutely feeling like a series, are quite distinct from one another in style and their particular brand of bizarre. Here, that meant aliens and alternate planes of existence, as opposed to the ghosts and rock heists of the other books. And I really liked it! It was fun, I liked the main characters, and I really liked the supporting cast.
After the modelling of the previous novels on The Iliad and The Odyssey, I was curious to know what role Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl would get. As it turns out, it was a plethora of references—some more obvious than others—to fairytales and folklore and just otherwise well-known stories like The Wizard of Oz.
If Pinkwater adds anymore books to this series, as suggested by the note at the end of the novel, then I'll happily read them. Otherwise, I'm so pleased to have read this trilogy and Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl sends it out on a high note.
July 4, 2020
An interesting book, way outside my wheelhouse. This is a fun, quirky, light read, unlike anything I've read before, that I can recall. I think someone is going to be stoked to find it in my little free library. Interesting book, for sure. 3 star.
September 15, 2010
How does one describe this book? This is a companion book to The Neddiad and The Yggysy, where we first met Audry, the cat-whiskered girl. Audrey arrived in Los Angeles through a portal from another dimension, then hitched a ride to Poughkeepsie, NY with Marlon Brando. Once in Poughkeepsie, Audrey befriends some interesting characters, some with questionable sanity. One of the things I love about Pinkwater's books is not only that his characters are so odd (yet so familiar) but that they are not afraid to talk about their differences. If only everyone could so openly discuss differences and why we have them. Audrey goes on an adventure with her new friend who is part mountain dwarf to an island where they meet some trolls and the horrible Wulluf. All the strange and wonderful characters she meets help lead her to finding out who she really is. Pinkwater's characters are, as always, endearingly quirky. He tells the story in a way that makes alternate realities seem plausible, and he leaves an opening for another spinoff, to tell the story of another character. This is not a book for everyone, but for those who can appreciate the humor, as well as the humanity, it is a book not to be missed. Once a reader is hooked on Pinkwater, they want more and more.
October 20, 2011
"Incidentally, I don't know how late you were planning to stay, but there is an excellent film this evening The Snake Pit. It's a wonderful comedy. I've seen it several times." p. 40.
Big Audrey has her own quest in Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl by Daniel Pinkwater. She hitches a ride from Los Angeles to Poughkeepsie, New York and there she finds clues to her true identity.
This book is like the Shutter Island for middle graders and tweens. What appears to be real isn't necessarily real and what appears to be a hallucination might actually be the real deal. And it was for this back and forth between the real and unreal that I so love the book.
Audrey meets a professor who has voluntarily checked himself into the local insane assylum because it seemed like the thing to do. She also meets Molly, the psychic who can see things for what they really are. Molly ends up being her best source of clues for learning her true identity.
The search though takes her up river to see a scary monster, through time to the town's past and to a parallel plane of existence. It would take too long to explain everything.
It was a fun read and made me laugh as much as The Neddiad did.
Big Audrey has her own quest in Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl by Daniel Pinkwater. She hitches a ride from Los Angeles to Poughkeepsie, New York and there she finds clues to her true identity.
This book is like the Shutter Island for middle graders and tweens. What appears to be real isn't necessarily real and what appears to be a hallucination might actually be the real deal. And it was for this back and forth between the real and unreal that I so love the book.
Audrey meets a professor who has voluntarily checked himself into the local insane assylum because it seemed like the thing to do. She also meets Molly, the psychic who can see things for what they really are. Molly ends up being her best source of clues for learning her true identity.
The search though takes her up river to see a scary monster, through time to the town's past and to a parallel plane of existence. It would take too long to explain everything.
It was a fun read and made me laugh as much as The Neddiad did.
January 30, 2016
An enjoyable surrealistic adventure story, by turns touching, comedic, and downright odd. If you enjoyed The Phantom Tollbooth and the works of Douglas Adams and Lemony Snicket, chances are you'll like this too. It had been quite a while since I had read the previous books in this series, so it took me a little while to catch on to who some of the characters were.
The story has a sort-of dreamlike quality, rambling and illogical, borrowing snatches of fairy tales and other tropes as it goes. But how can you resist a book containing a character called The Golden Gooser? (And yes, it does go around pinching people's bottoms).
The story has a sort-of dreamlike quality, rambling and illogical, borrowing snatches of fairy tales and other tropes as it goes. But how can you resist a book containing a character called The Golden Gooser? (And yes, it does go around pinching people's bottoms).
March 25, 2015
Let me start by saying that Daniel Pinkwater is a national treasure. Funny, absurd, nostalgic and ridiculous (in the best way), he is a writer that speaks to much of the best of what is unique about this country. That said, this loose sequel to his Yggyssey and Nediad is a little too disjointed for my tastes. It's not that it isn't funny, it has a good laugh on almost every page, but without ever really settling in on a through line other than that we don't know what the Cat-Whiskered Girl really is, the whole thing becomes exhausting. Best taken in small doses, this is not one of my favorite Pinkwaters.
June 6, 2015
I think this book is for the people that recall the nonsense of Alice in Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth. Daniel Pinkwater then mixes in mythology, folklore, and cinema history to make for a whirlwind of a ride. I definitely recommend reading it. :)
June 8, 2019
You know those people who think that random equals funny? The ones who think that saying "Banana couch!" has the same devastating wit as a finely placed bon mot from Dorothy Parker's pen?
This book reminded me a lot of them.
Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl follows Big Audrey - although throughout the novel she is referred to almost exclusively as just Audrey, so there's that - as she shifts planes of existence to end up in Poughkeepsie. Here she works at a bookstore dedicated to UFO enthusiasts, befriends a professor who routinely goes crazy, meets a dwerg who becomes a close friend, and searches for an elusive Elizabeth.
The problem with putting it like that is that it makes it sound as if these events are all tied together, which would be overstating the case. Instead, the book is almost a series of vignettes loosely tied together - I think the expression that best fits would be, "One damned thing after another." For instance, an entire chapter - in this case, less than three pages long - is dedicated to "Pirate Pete", who runs a restaurant. They eat smoked eel and move on, and it is never mentioned again.
I struggle with this, because (a) I'm not exactly the right audience, age-wise, for this book, and so it is possible that I might have been more impressed with this had I been younger, and (b) I have seen this type of book done well. I can't think of any examples now, naturally, but there is a type of children's book that has one character merrily embarking on adventures with little to tie them together. So what makes this different? I think part of the problem is that many of the adventures just aren't enough to be self-contained. For instance, Audrey doesn't do anything at Pirate Pete's. Pirate Pete never comes up again. There is nothing especially imaginative or intriguing about Pirate Pete's. It's literally just a restaurant that serves smoked eel. So it just leaves you wondering: what was the point?
The other problem is the characters all sound alike, which I gather is intentional, except for brief times when someone needed to make a sarcastic comment, in which case they suddenly changed their speech patterns completely. Otherwise, though, they all have that polished speech that makes it sound as if they are giving a lecture as they talk about planes of existence and so on. And again, I have seen this pulled off before, but it just doesn't work here. Possibly because I really didn't see what was so imaginative about this book. It just felt random. Anyone can say, "Oh, what about a world where the sky is made of taffy and people must eat their way to their homes!" and it doesn't really take imagination, it just takes a sort of self-administered MadLibs. Imagination should inspire awe and wonder, not just confusion. I hesitate to say it should mean something, but at the very least, it should have something of substance behind it. And in order to pull off the "everyone sounds the same", you have to either be John Green or have what the characters are saying be more interesting than how they say it.
There were some places with funny lines, but for the most part, this didn't offer anything to sink one's teeth into.
This book reminded me a lot of them.
Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl follows Big Audrey - although throughout the novel she is referred to almost exclusively as just Audrey, so there's that - as she shifts planes of existence to end up in Poughkeepsie. Here she works at a bookstore dedicated to UFO enthusiasts, befriends a professor who routinely goes crazy, meets a dwerg who becomes a close friend, and searches for an elusive Elizabeth.
The problem with putting it like that is that it makes it sound as if these events are all tied together, which would be overstating the case. Instead, the book is almost a series of vignettes loosely tied together - I think the expression that best fits would be, "One damned thing after another." For instance, an entire chapter - in this case, less than three pages long - is dedicated to "Pirate Pete", who runs a restaurant. They eat smoked eel and move on, and it is never mentioned again.
I struggle with this, because (a) I'm not exactly the right audience, age-wise, for this book, and so it is possible that I might have been more impressed with this had I been younger, and (b) I have seen this type of book done well. I can't think of any examples now, naturally, but there is a type of children's book that has one character merrily embarking on adventures with little to tie them together. So what makes this different? I think part of the problem is that many of the adventures just aren't enough to be self-contained. For instance, Audrey doesn't do anything at Pirate Pete's. Pirate Pete never comes up again. There is nothing especially imaginative or intriguing about Pirate Pete's. It's literally just a restaurant that serves smoked eel. So it just leaves you wondering: what was the point?
The other problem is the characters all sound alike, which I gather is intentional, except for brief times when someone needed to make a sarcastic comment, in which case they suddenly changed their speech patterns completely. Otherwise, though, they all have that polished speech that makes it sound as if they are giving a lecture as they talk about planes of existence and so on. And again, I have seen this pulled off before, but it just doesn't work here. Possibly because I really didn't see what was so imaginative about this book. It just felt random. Anyone can say, "Oh, what about a world where the sky is made of taffy and people must eat their way to their homes!" and it doesn't really take imagination, it just takes a sort of self-administered MadLibs. Imagination should inspire awe and wonder, not just confusion. I hesitate to say it should mean something, but at the very least, it should have something of substance behind it. And in order to pull off the "everyone sounds the same", you have to either be John Green or have what the characters are saying be more interesting than how they say it.
There were some places with funny lines, but for the most part, this didn't offer anything to sink one's teeth into.
January 17, 2023
This was the first english book that I read.
I moved to America from a non english speaking country in grade 5 not knowing any lick of english and was put in the ESL class in my school. My english was improving at a really fast pace and in a couple of months they started putting me in the normal english class to see if i could follow. One of our project was to do a show and tell of the last book that we read. Not knowing what book to do a show and tell on my parents took me to the second hand book store near our house. It was filled to the brim with books but with the fun cover i choose this book as /the/ book.
First time reading it i couldn't understand /anything/. Looking back at it again i don't think a very whimsical book about cat girls and flying saucers is a very good first book for an esl student, but its the book tht i choose and the deadline for the show and tell was coming. For the next few weeks i forced myself to read this and highlighted any words that i couldn't understand, from simple words like exciting, accommodation, and lit, to a more rare words that i wouldn't even know today like bunions (some toe disease) and percolator (apparently its some kind of kettle specially made for coffee). At the end with a very basic level of understanding of the book i had my show and tell. To be frank with you, i still have no clue what this book is about. Ive thought that maybe i should reread the book again now that my english is better but i think id rather keep the memories. Soooo daniel pinkwater thank u so much for the funk little adventure that i don’t understand at all!!
I moved to America from a non english speaking country in grade 5 not knowing any lick of english and was put in the ESL class in my school. My english was improving at a really fast pace and in a couple of months they started putting me in the normal english class to see if i could follow. One of our project was to do a show and tell of the last book that we read. Not knowing what book to do a show and tell on my parents took me to the second hand book store near our house. It was filled to the brim with books but with the fun cover i choose this book as /the/ book.
First time reading it i couldn't understand /anything/. Looking back at it again i don't think a very whimsical book about cat girls and flying saucers is a very good first book for an esl student, but its the book tht i choose and the deadline for the show and tell was coming. For the next few weeks i forced myself to read this and highlighted any words that i couldn't understand, from simple words like exciting, accommodation, and lit, to a more rare words that i wouldn't even know today like bunions (some toe disease) and percolator (apparently its some kind of kettle specially made for coffee). At the end with a very basic level of understanding of the book i had my show and tell. To be frank with you, i still have no clue what this book is about. Ive thought that maybe i should reread the book again now that my english is better but i think id rather keep the memories. Soooo daniel pinkwater thank u so much for the funk little adventure that i don’t understand at all!!
August 29, 2022
There were clever parts but honestly I didn’t get as much joy from this as from some other DP books. It felt like it was meandering and too long, like every weird thing was done just to be weird. It liked itself too much and I didn’t care what happened to the characters, even though I really loved Molly in her book! I liked when they said “it’s almost like we’re characters in a story someone else is writing.” I thought that was funny. The apple fritters and chicken Nancy, idk like, the giant who pretended he couldn’t talk, I just felt like they were random things and that’s it. Being quirky just to be quirky, or like DP was high. I thought the explanation of other dimensions was interesting and cool and it makes me wonder what kids think of that. Like when I read about the tesseract in wrinkle in time when I was young, I really didn’t grasp it, but this was well explained. Overall I wouldn’t recommend it but I think it’s not an accurate sample of what he can do.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 13, 2020
This is the third in the series that Pinkwater has written about similar characters. The Neddiad and the Yggyssey were the first two. This one is about Audrey, the cat whiskered girl. It starts off ok but then it starts to drag on and on. I was amazed that the characters talk about "getting high" at one point. The ending was terrible and it leaves off with the conclusion happening in another book. I'm done with this series and hope that DP doesn't keep working on this. I was very disappointed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 19, 2022
Big Audrey is from a different plane of existence She may also be Elizabeth from a different time. This book is weird and confusing. Nothing makes sense but it's fun. Other realms, alternative times, planes of existence.....animals like people, scary monsters, giants who are short...stretching your imagination. Daniel Pinkwater takes fairy tale ideas and twists them into something new. I enjoyed it more when I didn't try to make sense of it. The story is compelling, the characters very strange and interesting.
July 7, 2023
I read this book quite along while ago and it has stuck with me all this time. Well written and I quite enjoyed the characters and their adventures. Decided to enter into Goodreads before donating as I'm minimizing my home collection and am excited to learn it's part of a series!! I will now have to seek out the others.
November 1, 2025
Another Pinkwater book completed!
This one was fun. Not as good as The Neddiad, but better than The Yggyssy.
I really kind of loved this one. It had a nice, homey feeling. And it's always so fun when things cross over from one book to another, like Chef Chow's Hot and Spicy Oil from Borgel and the second Snarkout Boys book.
I like Audrey. And I like Molly.
And I ADORE D.M. Pinkwater!
This one was fun. Not as good as The Neddiad, but better than The Yggyssy.
I really kind of loved this one. It had a nice, homey feeling. And it's always so fun when things cross over from one book to another, like Chef Chow's Hot and Spicy Oil from Borgel and the second Snarkout Boys book.
I like Audrey. And I like Molly.
And I ADORE D.M. Pinkwater!
August 6, 2017
UFO's, apple fritters, a cat-whiskered girl, and different planes of existence. Pinkwater is a sure fire guarantee for smart silly fun.
January 17, 2019
Uber silly but entertaining adventure story featuring slipstream worlds and apple fritters (and always chickens).
February 11, 2019
I loved this book !! I read it in grade 6
March 17, 2019
Not quite as good as the Yggyssey in my opinion. Like all the other books in this series, it starts slow and then suddenly gets crazy in the last 20 pages and then it's over.
Read
June 11, 2019Thoroughly silly and fun.
November 23, 2023
A fun adventure this was probably my favorite in the series.
July 22, 2024
babygirl i mean daniel pinkwater why you so obsessed with coracles...
November 20, 2025
Weird but fun. I think my kid is at the exact right age for this: we'd read three chapters a night and when it was time to close the book she'd protest "Noooooo I need to know what happens!"
did-not-finish
January 6, 2026DNF because I want to read the first book in the series first.
June 19, 2012
Pinkwater, D. (2010). Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
268 pages.
Appetizer: Big Audrey is from another plane of existence. She had been visiting Los Angeles but has since relocated to Poughkeepsie, where she works at a UFO bookshop.
While visiting the local insane asylum, she befriends a girl named Molly who has a tendency to notice things that others don't. They go in search to find aliens and while meeting a number of quirky characters (including an old wise woman, a giant, a family of trolls a wolluf and the much-dreaded Muffin Man), they wind-up on the path to their destinies and to Audrey learning more about where she comes from.
The best way to sum up this book: Weeeeeeeeird.
It plays with absurdism and as I read I felt myself being pushed to question the way reality is constructed, to question the way that the insane are often perceived, to see the outsiders of society in a new way.
And while all of that is nice...this book was maybe a little too weird for me.
It is also worth noting for the overprotective parents out there, there is mention of getting high toward the end of the book. Several characters ingest magic bean soup that leaves them in altered states for a time. (I didn't find this scene in any way offensive. But it did make me start to wonder whether Pinkwater himself was high while writing.)
I kept trying to figure out if I would like this when I was a middle grade student. My conclusion is that younger (often impatient) me probably would have put this book back on the shelf after reading the first few pages.
Adult me probably would have done the same if I didn't feel obligated to finish due to everyone everywhere raving about how humorous Pinkwater's books are.
I guess I just don't find the humor in this book. One of the five or six moments I kanda-sorta found amusing was:
"But it's spooky and scary."
"We'll go in the daytime. It's not so scary then, is it?"
"Maybe not as" (p. 56)
That made me go "ha." Silently. In my head. Not out loud. Even after a glass of wine, I still wasn't laughing. And now, rereading it out of context, I realize you TOTALLY need the context to get anything out of that. Sigh.
I was amused with the Harold the Giant character who is a short giant, standing at only 5'7''. But then, it's not polite to draw attention to a person's physical deficits.
I also liked a reference to the classic version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Pinkwater quotes my dad's favorite scene. So I actually had to call my dad and read aloud a portion of chapter 61 (very short chapters!).
Logically, I did know that the book way playing with some excellent concepts (like finding a sense of belonging) and the book remixed some folkstories and touches on American history in inventive ways. And trying to explain the content of the book is a humorous endeavor all it's own. I can see why someone could fall in love with this book or other of Pinkwater's 100-ish publications. His writing just doesn't seem to be for me.
And now I'll be forced to feel like an outside among all my peers and teachers because I may be the only one whose immediate reaction to Pinkwater's books is WTF instead of YAYZ!
Dinner Conversation:
"It surprises me how many people don't know there are different planes of existence. Well, it's not really surprising that you don't know if no one ever explained it to you, so I will do that now" (p. ix).
"I myself came from another plane of existence to this one...Well, it's true that I can't absolutely prove I come from another plane. However, if you go to the library and get ahold of encyclopedias and National Geographics and certain books, you can find an article with pictures of a typical-looking Inuit, a typical-looking Northern European, a typical-looking Mongolian, a typical-looking Banut, Korean, Australian, Moroccan, and so on...all different types. All different in minor ways, and all similar in most ways. It is interesting. What you will not find is a picture of a girl with cat whiskers and sort of catlike eyes. That is, until they take a picture of me" (pp. x-xi).
"...Did they make you come to this hospital because you notice things other people don't?"
"No. I'm actually nuts," she said. "They put me here hoping to cure me of it."
"And are they doing you any good?" I asked.
"Not really. I'm hoping it goes away by itself. My name is Molly" (p. 11).
"Now, it is a fact that even if you have worked out logically that the odds are vastly in favor of life on other planets, even if you have had experience that supports the idea that travel between worlds is not only possible but common, and even if you have actually seen or otherwise had personal experience of spacecraft or flying saucers, when someone else claims to have had an encounter your first thought is to check out whether they are crazy" (p. 32).
Tasty Rating: !!
268 pages.
Appetizer: Big Audrey is from another plane of existence. She had been visiting Los Angeles but has since relocated to Poughkeepsie, where she works at a UFO bookshop.
While visiting the local insane asylum, she befriends a girl named Molly who has a tendency to notice things that others don't. They go in search to find aliens and while meeting a number of quirky characters (including an old wise woman, a giant, a family of trolls a wolluf and the much-dreaded Muffin Man), they wind-up on the path to their destinies and to Audrey learning more about where she comes from.
The best way to sum up this book: Weeeeeeeeird.
It plays with absurdism and as I read I felt myself being pushed to question the way reality is constructed, to question the way that the insane are often perceived, to see the outsiders of society in a new way.
And while all of that is nice...this book was maybe a little too weird for me.
It is also worth noting for the overprotective parents out there, there is mention of getting high toward the end of the book. Several characters ingest magic bean soup that leaves them in altered states for a time. (I didn't find this scene in any way offensive. But it did make me start to wonder whether Pinkwater himself was high while writing.)
I kept trying to figure out if I would like this when I was a middle grade student. My conclusion is that younger (often impatient) me probably would have put this book back on the shelf after reading the first few pages.
Adult me probably would have done the same if I didn't feel obligated to finish due to everyone everywhere raving about how humorous Pinkwater's books are.
I guess I just don't find the humor in this book. One of the five or six moments I kanda-sorta found amusing was:
"But it's spooky and scary."
"We'll go in the daytime. It's not so scary then, is it?"
"Maybe not as" (p. 56)
That made me go "ha." Silently. In my head. Not out loud. Even after a glass of wine, I still wasn't laughing. And now, rereading it out of context, I realize you TOTALLY need the context to get anything out of that. Sigh.
I was amused with the Harold the Giant character who is a short giant, standing at only 5'7''. But then, it's not polite to draw attention to a person's physical deficits.
I also liked a reference to the classic version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Pinkwater quotes my dad's favorite scene. So I actually had to call my dad and read aloud a portion of chapter 61 (very short chapters!).
Logically, I did know that the book way playing with some excellent concepts (like finding a sense of belonging) and the book remixed some folkstories and touches on American history in inventive ways. And trying to explain the content of the book is a humorous endeavor all it's own. I can see why someone could fall in love with this book or other of Pinkwater's 100-ish publications. His writing just doesn't seem to be for me.
And now I'll be forced to feel like an outside among all my peers and teachers because I may be the only one whose immediate reaction to Pinkwater's books is WTF instead of YAYZ!
Dinner Conversation:
"It surprises me how many people don't know there are different planes of existence. Well, it's not really surprising that you don't know if no one ever explained it to you, so I will do that now" (p. ix).
"I myself came from another plane of existence to this one...Well, it's true that I can't absolutely prove I come from another plane. However, if you go to the library and get ahold of encyclopedias and National Geographics and certain books, you can find an article with pictures of a typical-looking Inuit, a typical-looking Northern European, a typical-looking Mongolian, a typical-looking Banut, Korean, Australian, Moroccan, and so on...all different types. All different in minor ways, and all similar in most ways. It is interesting. What you will not find is a picture of a girl with cat whiskers and sort of catlike eyes. That is, until they take a picture of me" (pp. x-xi).
"...Did they make you come to this hospital because you notice things other people don't?"
"No. I'm actually nuts," she said. "They put me here hoping to cure me of it."
"And are they doing you any good?" I asked.
"Not really. I'm hoping it goes away by itself. My name is Molly" (p. 11).
"Now, it is a fact that even if you have worked out logically that the odds are vastly in favor of life on other planets, even if you have had experience that supports the idea that travel between worlds is not only possible but common, and even if you have actually seen or otherwise had personal experience of spacecraft or flying saucers, when someone else claims to have had an encounter your first thought is to check out whether they are crazy" (p. 32).
Tasty Rating: !!
March 21, 2013
Note: This review concerns an advanced reading copy. There may have been changes made to the published version.
This is maybe the dumbest book I have ever read. Normally when starting off a review with a statement like that, this would be the point where I explain why being dumb is actually a good thing, but in this case, it isn't. This novel is simply pointless and, in my estimation, poorly written.
I will give it one point of praise: despite this being apparently the third in a series I have no experience with, it was easy to enter and follow. The first two books are, I assume, summed up in the introduction, and from there everything else stands alone. So that, at least, did not affect my enjoyment of this work.
To the writing. I assume that this is meant as a YA novel, but even had I read it while still a young adult, I doubt I would have not have found it to my taste as I did not have ADHD. The short, choppy sentences show nothing and tell all. Worse, the dialogue tends toward being explainy, and none of the characters talk the way real people do. The plot consists of Big Audrey being led by the nose from one "wacky" character or happenstance to the next, and the big reveal at the end of the book was something I figured out the moment the mystery entered the story.
The rest of it is just a mishmash of trying too hard. Characters are dubbed insane to keep them from needing personalities. Allusions to pop culture are tossed in needlessly; by the time I reached "follow the mellow click road", I was wishing physical ill upon the author. What makes this worse are the blurbs on the outside of the book praising Pinkwater for being "nutty" and "weird", and mentioning the "of course, ample apple fritters", because the presence of apple fritters is high comedy or something. I laughed at precisely one gag in the book, and that was the main character expressing her distaste for a set of rather irritating side characters.
One of those blurbs, thankfully slightly more eloquent, is from Neil Gaiman, an author I quite respect, and having him there leads me to what bothered me most about this novel: Pinkwater comes off as a Gaiman admirer and imitator with precisely none of the skill. This story has a Gaimanesque setup -- young girl, slightly odd, cast of colorful characters, strange rubbing elbows with the mundane -- but there is nothing graceful or elegant about it. Most of the goings-on happen for no reason, and many of them appear only to be discarded immediately afterward.
By the end of the book, I was just glad to have reached the end. It was a quick read, and that is perhaps the nicest thing I can really say about it. I will be avoiding Pinkwater from now on.
This is maybe the dumbest book I have ever read. Normally when starting off a review with a statement like that, this would be the point where I explain why being dumb is actually a good thing, but in this case, it isn't. This novel is simply pointless and, in my estimation, poorly written.
I will give it one point of praise: despite this being apparently the third in a series I have no experience with, it was easy to enter and follow. The first two books are, I assume, summed up in the introduction, and from there everything else stands alone. So that, at least, did not affect my enjoyment of this work.
To the writing. I assume that this is meant as a YA novel, but even had I read it while still a young adult, I doubt I would have not have found it to my taste as I did not have ADHD. The short, choppy sentences show nothing and tell all. Worse, the dialogue tends toward being explainy, and none of the characters talk the way real people do. The plot consists of Big Audrey being led by the nose from one "wacky" character or happenstance to the next, and the big reveal at the end of the book was something I figured out the moment the mystery entered the story.
The rest of it is just a mishmash of trying too hard. Characters are dubbed insane to keep them from needing personalities. Allusions to pop culture are tossed in needlessly; by the time I reached "follow the mellow click road", I was wishing physical ill upon the author. What makes this worse are the blurbs on the outside of the book praising Pinkwater for being "nutty" and "weird", and mentioning the "of course, ample apple fritters", because the presence of apple fritters is high comedy or something. I laughed at precisely one gag in the book, and that was the main character expressing her distaste for a set of rather irritating side characters.
One of those blurbs, thankfully slightly more eloquent, is from Neil Gaiman, an author I quite respect, and having him there leads me to what bothered me most about this novel: Pinkwater comes off as a Gaiman admirer and imitator with precisely none of the skill. This story has a Gaimanesque setup -- young girl, slightly odd, cast of colorful characters, strange rubbing elbows with the mundane -- but there is nothing graceful or elegant about it. Most of the goings-on happen for no reason, and many of them appear only to be discarded immediately afterward.
By the end of the book, I was just glad to have reached the end. It was a quick read, and that is perhaps the nicest thing I can really say about it. I will be avoiding Pinkwater from now on.
December 20, 2010
Note: Free Advanced Reader Copy received at ALA 2010 from publisher.
For a fairly lighthearted adventure, this story packs some pretty heavy concepts. I appreciate that Pinkwater is both willing and able to expose young minds to concepts like alternate planes of existence, destiny, and existentialism without dumbing it down OR making it boring is downright incredible. And this is exactly the right age to expose people to these concepts, as their brains have not hardened into tight little balls of what is and isn't conceivable.
In addition to this, the story is remarkably compelling with bits of humor and absurdity thrown in. For instance, I loved the Trial of Hot, it had me laughing loud enough to worry my family in the other room. Audrey is obviously a very intelligent girl, and despite her cat whiskers, is more or less treated as a normal person. While this might not be realistic, it's a nice change from being the sole focus of a YA novel. It might even be a better example of how children should treat people with differences as opposed to having those characters abused before being redeemed in the eyes of "normal" people.
Although this is targeted for a younger audience, I think older teens and adults with a good temper will enjoy it too. The oddball kids should definitely be pushed towards this, if possible.
The reviewer is the author of the blog A Librarian's Life in Books.
For a fairly lighthearted adventure, this story packs some pretty heavy concepts. I appreciate that Pinkwater is both willing and able to expose young minds to concepts like alternate planes of existence, destiny, and existentialism without dumbing it down OR making it boring is downright incredible. And this is exactly the right age to expose people to these concepts, as their brains have not hardened into tight little balls of what is and isn't conceivable.
In addition to this, the story is remarkably compelling with bits of humor and absurdity thrown in. For instance, I loved the Trial of Hot, it had me laughing loud enough to worry my family in the other room. Audrey is obviously a very intelligent girl, and despite her cat whiskers, is more or less treated as a normal person. While this might not be realistic, it's a nice change from being the sole focus of a YA novel. It might even be a better example of how children should treat people with differences as opposed to having those characters abused before being redeemed in the eyes of "normal" people.
Although this is targeted for a younger audience, I think older teens and adults with a good temper will enjoy it too. The oddball kids should definitely be pushed towards this, if possible.
The reviewer is the author of the blog A Librarian's Life in Books.
July 25, 2017
Weird. Random. Strange.
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