Aug

11

Book ‘Em: Chickens and Malamutes And Polar Bears, Oh My!

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 11, 2008 |

moscow.jpgSaying that Daniel Pinkwater writes weird children’s books is kind of like saying the sky is blue, but they’re not weird in the sense of being such tall tales that you recognize right away that your leg is being pulled. As a kid I picked up Lizard Music and The Hoboken Chicken Emergency at the recommendation of a librarian who thought I might like them, but I had a hard time getting into them because they were, well, weird. What was putting me off–and what makes Pinkwater’s books so much fun–is that the humor is often both direct and sly at the same time; it’s tongue-in-cheek, but you can see the bulge of his tongue pressing his cheek, if that makes any sense. There’s a Monty Python or Kids In The Hall quality to his deadpan style, meaning that, hopefully, young readers of Pinkwater’s books will grow up with a well-developed sense of humor. The recent Ice Cream Larry series, for instance, starts with Young Larry, in which a polar bear falls asleep on a chunk of ice, floats south, and wakes up on a beach in New Jersey. He becomes a lifeguard so he can make money to buy blueberry muffins. Ice Cream Larry is even funnier and an even better example of Pinkwater’s humor, as Larry is trapped in a freezer and eats an eighth of a ton of ice cream. I love the specificity; it’s not a ton, which would be really ridiculous, or several pounds–it’s an eighth of a ton. After eating all that ice cream Larry says, “I do not feel sick”, and this becomes the line in an ice cream company’s advertising campaign. Larry also markets his own line of ice cream bars which come in several flavors including codfish. The term “magic realism” might be applicable to Pinkwater’s work, but, unlike the South American fiction to which this term is usually applied, Pinkwater mixes the absurd with the mundane for comic effect.

The first book of Pinkwater’s I actually finished, the first book of his that I read where I actually caught on to his oddball sense of humor, was The Magic Moscow, about a guy named Steve Nichelson who runs an eatery specializing in soft-serve ice cream, although his friend and co-worker Norman is the book’s narrator. Steve specializes in bizarre concoctions, like the Moron’s Delight, which consists of a banana, a carrot, three kinds of syrup, whole roasted peanuts, a slice of Swiss cheese, a radish, yogurt, wheat germ, and a kosher pickle. It’s served in a shoebox lined with plastic. Obsessed with a series of comic books about Sergeant Schwartz of The Yukon and his faithful Alaskan Malamute (Pinkwater himself has Malamutes) Steve buys a scrawny, funny-looking Malamute named Edward, supposedly the grandson of the real Sergeant Schwartz’s dog Champion Goldentooth Gorilla. The story just gets even more bizarre from there, with the “real” Sergeant Schwartz (a former radio actor and now a private detective) showing up to help Steve when Edward, who’s been entered in the Hoboken Sled Dog Contest, disappears. Like many of Pinkwater’s books it’s illustrated by his wife Jill whose simple line drawings, which look like they were done with a felt-tip pen, are the perfect compliment to Pinkwater’s humor.


Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Morgan on August 12, 2008 2:04 pm

    I just love Kid Lit, and buy as much of it - probably more - than I do adult fare.
    One of my favorite books is Neil Gaiman’s “Wolves in the Walls.” I adore Cornelia Funke, Avi and David Almond’s Skellig makes me cry every time I read it. My favorite story book, though, is Chris Van Allsburg’s “The Widow’s Broom.”
    I just finished “Tamsin” by Peter Beagle. Loved it.
    I’ll have to seek out the Pinkwater books for Lucas, although right now he’s only into astronomy and full of questions about how many moons this or that planet has. :-)

  2. Christopher on August 12, 2008 7:01 pm

    “Wolves in the Walls” is just brilliant. I read a review somewhere where a mother was complaining that the strawberry jelly the wolves had dripping from their mouths looked like blood. My response was, “And?” Kids shouldn’t be isolated from terrible things. As Bettelheim and others have said, literature is a safe way for them to deal with things they’re feeling now and a way to prepare them for things they’ll face later. Anyway kid lit is fun for adults to read too. Hey, you need to read what Lucas is reading to make sure it lives up to your high standards.

  3. Morgan on August 13, 2008 4:09 pm

    Pu-leaze. Being scared is half the fun. Alex and I both found Coraline creepy, but in a wonderful way. We love stories of dark fairy lore where folks get carried away into the realm of faery and the like. I can’t wait till she’s old enough to read “johnathan strange and Mr. Norrell!”
    Lucas has been immersed in astronomy books that my mom sent over for him. He can’t read them yet but already has memorized some of Saturn and Jupiter’s moons and is trying to get his mind around a universe without end. Big concept for such a little guy, that.

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