Here it is... the Horn Book Review of Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl, from Sarah Ellis
Pinkwater takes another dip into the world of The Neddiad (rev. 5/07) and The Yggyssey (rev. 3/09) as he follows Big Audrey, the cat-whiskered girl, from Los Angeles to Poughkeepsie, where she makes new friends and solves a mystery. The new friends include Molly, a dwerg from the Catskill Mountains; wise woman Chicken Nancy; and Harold, a giant who is rather short (but we don't mention it). The mystery involves an old portrait of a girl called Elizabeth Van Vreemdeling, who looks exactly like Audrey. In their search for answers Audrey and Molly get thrown into gaol (which is what the birdhead cops call jail); brave Spookhuizen, the haunted house; and are faced with the Wolluf, who is so frightening that it is probably dangerous even to name him in this review. The goings-on might be confusing except that the setting is not precisely Poughkeepsie but an "interstitial existential quasiplane." Pinkwater is still asking if we've "heard the one about the. . ."; and his complex setup for the punch line "follow the mellow click road" is vintage. He still teases us with a barrage of references, from Where the Wild Things Are to Gone with the Wind, but the tone of this offering is less hectic and more wistful than its predecessors.
Markham Public Library has a copy of Bear's Picture.
Pinkwater takes another dip into the world of The Neddiad (rev. 5/07) and The Yggyssey (rev. 3/09) as he follows Big Audrey, the cat-whiskered girl, from Los Angeles to Poughkeepsie, where she makes new friends and solves a mystery. The new friends include Molly, a dwerg from the Catskill Mountains; wise woman Chicken Nancy; and Harold, a giant who is rather short (but we don't mention it). The mystery involves an old portrait of a girl called Elizabeth Van Vreemdeling, who looks exactly like Audrey. In their search for answers Audrey and Molly get thrown into gaol (which is what the birdhead cops call jail); brave Spookhuizen, the haunted house; and are faced with the Wolluf, who is so frightening that it is probably dangerous even to name him in this review. The goings-on might be confusing except that the setting is not precisely Poughkeepsie but an "interstitial existential quasiplane." Pinkwater is still asking if we've "heard the one about the. . ."; and his complex setup for the punch line "follow the mellow click road" is vintage. He still teases us with a barrage of references, from Where the Wild Things Are to Gone with the Wind, but the tone of this offering is less hectic and more wistful than its predecessors.
Markham Public Library has a copy of Bear's Picture.
posted by Howie at 6:38 PM
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