In yesterday's Washington Post Style section: Life lessons tied to The Big Orange Splot.

Neddiad reviewed


For the more offbeat reader, the superb Daniel Pinkwater's The Neddiad (Houghton Mifflin, 307 pages, $21.95, ages 9+) is a refreshing confection displaying all the author's customary eccentric humour.

When Neddie Wentworthstein sets out on the train from Chicago to L.A., he little expects that he will meet Melvin the shaman, become the travelling companion of a ghost bellboy, or be made guardian of a sacred meteoric turtle with the power "to keep things from getting out of order." But that's what happens. Neddie also joins military school, makes friends with the fearsome Yggrasil and outwits Sholmos Bunyip, "a being of pure evil" – in other words, "worse than Walt Disney."

This is Pinkwater at his most eventful, with the usual quick back-and-forth dialogue, absurd understatement and matter-of-fact lunacy. "Civilization may be ending tonight, and you're going bowling?" Neddie asks of Melvin. Yes, indeed. Even the end of the world can't compete with the shamans' bowling league.