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Tips & Information
for Younger
Book Lovers
Thats all for today folks, lets start!
Your INFO bookshelf team
When the Volnik family inherits a remote Scottish castle, they also inherit the Boggart - an invisible, mischievous spirit who's lived in the castle for centuries. When he's inadvertently trapped in a desk and shipped to their home in Toronto, 12-year old Emily and 10-year old Jess accidentally let him loose in the modern, urban world. His reaction to this modern world leads to all kinds of humorous and dramatic consequences, especially for Emily, who is accused of causing psychic disturbances. But after sampling the wonders of Toronto - including pizza and peanut butter! - the Boggart wants to go home. The Volnik kids have to combine the modern magic of computers and the Boggart's ancient magic to transport their family spirit back to Scotland.
The Boggart is a wonderful mixture of fantasy and reality from Susan Cooper, the author of The Dark Is Rising series. All three of the main characters - Emily, Jess, and the Boggart - are extremely likable - and they hook your interest from the first chapter. It's hard to put down until the exciting climax.
ISBN ?
If you haven't got enough from the boggart and Co, here is some more boggart stuff. This time the link leads to the audio book version but there is of course a printed version available as well.
In this sequel, several children and the Boggart meet the Loch Ness monster. They learn that Nessie is a Boggart relation who has forgotten how to change her shape. In order to save Nessie, the Boggart and the children must help her to return to her rightful Boggart form!
$4.05 (Paperback published by Aladdin), 1998
It's high time these were reissued. Alan Mendelsohn leads off this collection, and is the crowning jewel in it. Alan Mendelsohn is a very gratifying novel of a fat boy in a suburban junior high school (Leonard Neeble) who just doesn't fit in. He doesn't make any friends until an even stranger (though not fat) boy shows up at the school: Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars.
Alan fights back against the almost overwhelming mediocrity of his surroundings, raising Leonard's spirits and giving him courage to rise above his peers, also. The book involves many of Pinkwater's favorite images: chickens, aliens, alternate dimensions, whacky adults, food, food, food, and many others.
The second novel is Slaves of Spiegel. Much shorter, this is aimed at a slightly younger audience than Alan Mendelsohn. It's the sequel to his Fat Men from Space(and also a sequel to The Magic Moscow), but stands alone. Very light and silly, it's a fun, quick read.
The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death is somewhere in between the first two novels in this collection, both in length and style. Nonetheless, this book is also entertaining, and does you the great service of introducing you to Walter Galt and Winston Bongo, who sneak out many nights to go to the all-night movie theater, the Snark. I'm a little disappointed the titles don't also reflect Rat, the Snarkout girl who's an integral and delightful part of the stories, but that doesn't detract from the charm of the books.
The Last Guru is Pinkwater's satire on the American passion for gurus in the 1970s. The names have been changed, but you if you were around back then, and old enough to follow such things, you will recognize many of the gurus in this book. While short, this is nonetheless a good novel with a strong message: you don't need an external guru to tell you what to do. This is a slight variation on the themes of most of Pinkwater's books, which is closer to: you don't have to be like everybody else to be wonderful. This is probably the second-best novel in the collection.
Finally, Young Adult Novel. This is the most bizarre novel in the book. It starts out as a parody of the type of young adult novel which gained great popularity in the 1970s: the modern teen in a troubled society. You know the type: modern teen has an alcoholic father, a prostitute sister, a junkie mother, best friend's a gang leader, etc., etc. Young Adult Novel quickly lets you know that while it starts out like this, it isn't your average young adult novel.
The protagonists in this novel are the Wild Dada Ducks, a group of high school students who decide to rebel against the mediocrity of their fellow students. It soon becomes apparent that the Wild Dada Ducks leave a lot to be desired: they're horrible snobs and interfering busybodies. Nobody really comes out ahead in this book - it's a puzzler. The message seems to be that it's okay to be different than the others, but don't think you're any better than they are ...
$8.13
Paperback
$3.55
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2.
The Boggart and the Monster
by Susan Cooper
ISBN: 0689822863
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3.
5 Novels
by Daniel Pinkwater
This book is a reissue of five previously published Pinkwater novels:
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
ISBN 0374423296
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Archives:
new books on the shelf 12/97
new books on the shelf 11/96 + 12/96
new books on the shelf 1/97
new books on the shelf 2/97
new books on the shelf 3/97
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