Skip to main content

Lizard Music

By

by Daniel Pinkwater.
New York Review of Books, 2011. 157 pgs. Fiction.

When Victor's parents leave him with his older sister while they are on vacation, he worries about having to take care of her, but she soon leaves for the beach with her hippie friends leaving him on his own to sleep in, eat TV dinners, and stay up late to watch Walter Cronkite, Roger Mudd, and B movies. One night when all stations should have signed off, he sees a jazz ensemble of lizards playing really good music, but when he calls the station to find out who they are, they've never heard of such a thing. When Victor takes the bus into Hogboro he meets the Chicken Man, also known as Charles Swan, Lawrence Lawrence, and Herr Doktor Professor Horace Kupeckie, Plt. D. (Doctor of Poultry), who eventually takes him to the invisible island of the lizards, who are mostly named Reynold. Daniel Pinkwater is a loon of the highest order, and this reissue of one his early books a rare delight. Those of us who remember Walter Cronkite and Roger Mudd with fondness ("And that's the way it is" is Victor's mantra), will enjoy this book more than the whippersnappers for whom it is now newly available, but who could resist a kid who gets to stay home by himself eating pizza with anchovies and drinking grapes soda, and who gets to go on an adventure to the island of the lizards with Herr Doktor Professor and his really, really smart chicken?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Display: Dino-mite Reads

By
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs By Mo Willems New York: Balzar + Bray, 2012. Picture Book. "Once upon a time, there were three hungry Dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur . . . and a Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway. One day--for no particular reason--they decided to tidy up their house, make the beds, and prepare pudding of varying temperatures. And then--for no particular reason--they decided to go . . . someplace else. They were definitely not setting a trap for some succulent, unsupervised little girl. Definitely not!" --Editor Smart Vs. Strong! Written by Jill Esbaum Illustrated by Miles Thompson New York: Simon Spotlight, 2021. Easy Reader. 64 pages. "When Thunder gets stuck in quicksand, Cluck uses his smarts to free his friend." --Editor How Dinosaurs Went Extinct Written by Ame Dyckman Illustrated by Jennifer Harney New York: Brown and Company, 2023. Picture Book. "When a child in a museum asks how dinosaurs became extinct, Dad co
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Enigma Girls

By
  The Enigma Girls By Candace Fleming New York: Scholastic Focus, 2024. Informational. 371 pages. If you have an interest in little known aspects of history or in World War II in particular, this book is for you. The Enigma Girls tells the story of 10 young women who worked at Station X at Bletchley Park in England helping to break ciphers during World War II. Each of the girls grew up in different circumstances, and thus, each worked at in a different part of Station X cracking codes. The reader learns about how Station X worked through the stories of each of the girls. Whether it was transcribing the Morse code messages that the Germans were sending to their armies or decoding, translating, or paraphrasing messages, each girl had a part to play. The stories of the girls are intermixed with plenty of photographs as well as special chapters about how to decode various types of ciphers. Learning about Station X through the eyes of the girls that worked there helps the reader gain a huma
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Hidden Dragon

By
The Hidden Dragon By Melissa Marr New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2023. Fiction. 161 pages. Three children, Otter, London, and Sophia, live in a fantasy world with dragons. Otter (short for Ottilie) is the daughter of a ship captain, and she loves the sea and its dragons. London is a stowaway boy, searching for a new life full of adventure. Sophia lives in a thief house with other children, all dedicated to helping each other and trying to make the kingdom better. As trouble begins to brew both on land and at sea, these three heroes realize that maybe it's up to the kids to make things right. Readers experience the book from multiple perspectives, and with a bit of mystery and adventure, this is an amazing fantasy read. With the inspiring message that children truly can make a difference, readers will enjoy how each character fights for what's right, even when it's inconvenient. The ending is resolved a little quickly, but this is a great read for all "hatchlings."
Post a Comment
Read more