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Young Adult Novel
The Wild Dada Ducks members cause all sorts of mischief around their junior high school, but although the boys are not bad, they like to pretend that they are true dadaists with unintentional and irrational behavior.
58 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
6 people are currently reading
273 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Pinkwater
156 books415 followersDaniel Manus Pinkwater is an author of mostly children's books and is an occasional commentator on National Public Radio. He attended Bard College. Well-known books include Lizard Music, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Fat Men from Space, Borgel, and the picture book The Big Orange Splot. Pinkwater has also illustrated many of his books in the past, although for more recent works that task has passed to his wife Jill Pinkwater.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
May 13, 2010
Possibly the most important book ever written.
Well, to a certain young kid who picked it up in the library years ago. It remains the most influential book in my life and even going back to read it as a less young adult, possibly even a full adult, I find it poignant enjoyable. Mr Pinkwater's best work I think.
Well, to a certain young kid who picked it up in the library years ago. It remains the most influential book in my life and even going back to read it as a less young adult, possibly even a full adult, I find it poignant enjoyable. Mr Pinkwater's best work I think.
September 11, 2023
Pinkwater's hilarious novella about a group of Dadaists who have the tables turned on them by the subject of one of their "art projects." I have this in the 5 Novels anthology, and reread it on a car trip today after I had finished reading Alan Mendelssohn the Boy From Mars to my kids.
I don't know why, but I almost cried with laughter when it's admitted that most of the people at the school don't even notice the Wild Dada Ducks or their art, and that once they do something, they move on and forget about it. It's just absolutely nailing the the mind of the teenage boy. Or any teen. And many adults.
I don't know why, but I almost cried with laughter when it's admitted that most of the people at the school don't even notice the Wild Dada Ducks or their art, and that once they do something, they move on and forget about it. It's just absolutely nailing the the mind of the teenage boy. Or any teen. And many adults.
July 27, 2020
I just re-read the most glorious novella of my misspent youth. I originally read it on a visit to my grandmother as a kid, though why she had this book in her house is a good question—maybe because she had great taste, or because she wanted to make sure we read strange things and turned out to be weirdos—and I can remember reading it under a blanket with a flashlight when I was definitely supposed to be asleep. Young Adult Novel is totally ridiculous, yet it captures (or perhaps even formed) a sliver of my own high school experience as being a weird kid into weird things (and who wrote bad, dark, and probably mean short stories with her siblings and friends), but who took herself very seriously nonetheless. It's also the reason I know what Dada is. It has mostly aged well, despite being written before I was born. Thanks, Daniel Pinkwater, for your strange contributions to my adolescence.
November 14, 2009
Logan has to read this. So does Jack. Without blowing details, it's told by a member of the Wild Dada Ducks - a group of Dadaist boys in highschool. I could clearly see these guys being my husband, and afore mentioned friends.
It is too funny.
My son loves Daniel Pinkwater's picture books (especially Rainy Morning and anything about Irving and Muktuk) and so we were inspired to explore the other avenues of his fiction.
It's a short book - even a slow reader could read it in less than a hour probably. I read it in about 25 minutes. And I laughed out loud. I don't usually laugh out loud when reading books.
It is too funny.
My son loves Daniel Pinkwater's picture books (especially Rainy Morning and anything about Irving and Muktuk) and so we were inspired to explore the other avenues of his fiction.
It's a short book - even a slow reader could read it in less than a hour probably. I read it in about 25 minutes. And I laughed out loud. I don't usually laugh out loud when reading books.
March 22, 2022
Thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend, if you can, having your flatmate read it aloud to you in one sitting, while you knit, as I did.
October 15, 2022
I have no idea what (if anything) I would be if I hadn't read this book as a just emerging young "adult."
October 30, 2015
Daniel Pinkwater's deconstruction of the YA novel, circa 1982. I really liked the book - this was one of the books where the last sentence really made the rest of the story snap into focus for me, which is a neat trick I admire. Also, I thought it captured being a high school student in the 80s really well.
I talked about this book with my friend Carrie for our podcast 'Love YA Like Crazy' -- she wasn't as crazy about it as I was, and in fact may not have entirely forgiven me for making her read it.
You can listen to us talk about it at http://po.st/1u1sON or on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/y...
I talked about this book with my friend Carrie for our podcast 'Love YA Like Crazy' -- she wasn't as crazy about it as I was, and in fact may not have entirely forgiven me for making her read it.
You can listen to us talk about it at http://po.st/1u1sON or on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/y...
January 16, 2018
The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death resembles Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars in its convoluted plot, but it seems much more grounded in reality, if a particularly eccentric reality, at least until the last quarter of the book. Its depiction of high school is stiletto sharp, but nothing as cutting as in Young Adult Novel. All the books have a jaundiced view of school, noting the common problems of cliques, moribund teachers, and the energy of youth (yes, that last is a problem--hey, you didn't think, as a teacher, that I would side totally for the kids, did you?).
August 29, 2017
One of the weirdest novellas I have ever read, a statement which stands whether I am in fourth grade or four years into government work. A group of high school outcasts follow the principles of Dada art and philosophy religiously, until one of their attempts at outsider art accidentally turns an anonymous nerd into a quasi-fascist dictator. Is it just a funny story? A satire on the failings of democracy? I don't know for sure, but reading it in 2017 after the Trump vs. Clinton campaign, it feels more satirical than it did years ago.
September 21, 2012
Long Live the Wild Dada Ducks of Himmler High!
Brilliant.
I've read it about 10 times but it's always a classic and I enjoyed it as much this time as any time in the past. Kevin Shapiro for President...
Great book for oddballs, outcasts & those that don't fit in. The usual Pinkwater zany, quirky, funny, irreverent masterpiece.
Brilliant.
I've read it about 10 times but it's always a classic and I enjoyed it as much this time as any time in the past. Kevin Shapiro for President...
Great book for oddballs, outcasts & those that don't fit in. The usual Pinkwater zany, quirky, funny, irreverent masterpiece.
July 6, 2007
This book is the reason I survived grade school and bothered to learn anything about twentieth century Mexican politics and hsitory. Probably helped me out through high school, too. Also, may be the best work on Dadaism written (mostly) in English.
November 10, 2015
This was, for many years, my favorite thing ever written. I almost don't want to ever re-read it out of fear that I've aged out of appreciating it.
It is collected in Pinkwater's "5 Novels" collection.
It is collected in Pinkwater's "5 Novels" collection.
September 11, 2016
This book opened my eyes to literature, and the better shit beyond.
July 13, 2010
My opinion of this book can pretty much be summed up in six letters: LOL WTF?
October 11, 2012
Bit dorky. Not as good as some of his other books. I liked the twist at the end.
June 13, 2014
This is a complex lattice of sharp meta-jokes about art and culture, and then it explosively dismantles itself. It is GREAT.
November 13, 2022
All of Daniel Pinkwater’s main characters are weirdos, in all the best ways. They are nerds who do their own thing and though they don’t “fit in” with mainstream society, they usually find a band of fellow misfits who accept each other for who and what they are. The Wild Dada Ducks—made up of the Honorable Venustiano Carranza (President of Mexico), Captain Colossal, Igor, the Indiana Zephyr, and Charles the Cat—fit that model exactly. When they discover there is a student in their school with the same name as a fictional orphan about whom they’ve been writing stories, all heck breaks lose. This is a quick and funny little story.
August 22, 2025
"Kevin Shapiro had just entered the Balkan Falcon Drug Company. He walked toward the booth where we were sitting. We hadn't seen Kevin Shapiro walking before this. He had a fascinating walk. He sort of bobbed up and down, and worked his shoulders as he walked, as though he was listening to music—with a bad beat."
What I would have given to have read this book as a Young Adult! Or, as a tween, had I read it when it was published.
I would have wanted to be a Wild Dada Duck, just as how, even today, I wish I was Snarking Out with Walter, Winston, Rat, and Uncle Flipping.
Daniel Pinkwater is getting up there in years now, but I hope he never dies. I need him to keep on writing. Long Live DMP! Huzzah!
What I would have given to have read this book as a Young Adult! Or, as a tween, had I read it when it was published.
I would have wanted to be a Wild Dada Duck, just as how, even today, I wish I was Snarking Out with Walter, Winston, Rat, and Uncle Flipping.
Daniel Pinkwater is getting up there in years now, but I hope he never dies. I need him to keep on writing. Long Live DMP! Huzzah!
April 6, 2022
The silliest, funniest satire of young adult novels ever......... The man is a maniac! Hooray.
The copy I read was from the James. E. Taylor High School library in Katy, Texas. It had a lovely plastic jacket over the book cover and a nice card on the front to hold the record of all those who took it out.
Unfortunately, there was a big letter D in red pen circled ofer the card. It had never been taken out.
You can read it and find out for yourself why.
The copy I read was from the James. E. Taylor High School library in Katy, Texas. It had a lovely plastic jacket over the book cover and a nice card on the front to hold the record of all those who took it out.
Unfortunately, there was a big letter D in red pen circled ofer the card. It had never been taken out.
You can read it and find out for yourself why.
August 26, 2017
Very Pinkwater. Listened to this on his podcast, but I believe it was unabridged so it counts as reading it. Fun, weird, all I want. Not extraordinary, hence 4 stars.
June 21, 2019
Read-aloud w/ my son. The bit with the student council election is pretty great, but there's nothing quite like the bleak, absurd humor of the Kevin Shapiro, Boy Orphan interludes.
July 26, 2019
The best ya novel. Everyone else can just stop trying now.
September 3, 2021
Simply the best!
April 15, 2022
Pinkwater has outdone himself with this book. It has the usual offbeat humor and countercultural elements. A quick read, this book might be his best book ever.
August 23, 2022
five stars for the dada duck manifesto alone
January 9, 2024
Book about a young kid growing up.
August 14, 2024
like captain underpants for big boys
September 30, 2025
a perfect book, a celebration of the esoteric and irreverent and defiant and weird and not least of all joyful-this should be required reading for the health of young adults' souls.
May 4, 2009
I read an edition that contains BOTH "Young Adult Novel" AND "Young Adults" (the sequel), an edition which GoodReads does not think exists. Hm. I wouldn't want it any other way, though, as both parts are necessary to complete the arc (or pointed lack-of-arc).
Pinkwater was my favorite author as a kid, due to his warped/ridiculous plots and characters, and the fact that he trusts his young readers with cynical social commentary. (See Lizard Music, The Last Guru.)
Young Adult Novel/Young Adults is for high-school age readers and is equally generous in its assumptions about said readers' intelligence/maturity level (see other reviewers' descriptions of the sequel as "sick"). It's about a group of high school guys who obsess over Dadaism, and then Zen; they search for meaninglessness and find it, with occasional stumbles into meaning. They reflect on the inevitability of nuclear annihilation, due to the fact that we've had "two presidents of the United States in a row whose favorite lunch was cottage cheese with catsup on it." (Now that I'm thinking about all of the Pinkwater books I've read in relationship to the cold war, their randomness seems downright meaningful.)
Does this sound like a heavy book? It is, but it's also painless, because Pinkwater is one of the funniest writers around, and unlike so many writers for kids never drowns his prose with pointless details. The characters also have normal teenage concerns, such as wishing they were popular and that girls would date them, but they don't agonize over these things, or even mention them outside the context of how they relate to their philosophical concerns. They accept nerddom and virginity as kind of inevitable, so they don't dwell on them. It's one of the most clear-headed teen books ever. (This is also why it's great grown-up reading, too.)
It also took about three hours to read, so there's not much to lose.
Pinkwater was my favorite author as a kid, due to his warped/ridiculous plots and characters, and the fact that he trusts his young readers with cynical social commentary. (See Lizard Music, The Last Guru.)
Young Adult Novel/Young Adults is for high-school age readers and is equally generous in its assumptions about said readers' intelligence/maturity level (see other reviewers' descriptions of the sequel as "sick"). It's about a group of high school guys who obsess over Dadaism, and then Zen; they search for meaninglessness and find it, with occasional stumbles into meaning. They reflect on the inevitability of nuclear annihilation, due to the fact that we've had "two presidents of the United States in a row whose favorite lunch was cottage cheese with catsup on it." (Now that I'm thinking about all of the Pinkwater books I've read in relationship to the cold war, their randomness seems downright meaningful.)
Does this sound like a heavy book? It is, but it's also painless, because Pinkwater is one of the funniest writers around, and unlike so many writers for kids never drowns his prose with pointless details. The characters also have normal teenage concerns, such as wishing they were popular and that girls would date them, but they don't agonize over these things, or even mention them outside the context of how they relate to their philosophical concerns. They accept nerddom and virginity as kind of inevitable, so they don't dwell on them. It's one of the most clear-headed teen books ever. (This is also why it's great grown-up reading, too.)
It also took about three hours to read, so there's not much to lose.
August 11, 2014
Dada. What is it? Well, by definition it's an art movement--an avant-garde perspective that focused on rejection of standards. So a group of boys have decided to embrace Dada not only in the arts but as a philosophy for their lives--rejecting or inverting every structure they feel shouldn't be applied to them--and they name themselves the Wild Dada Ducks, intent on injecting some absurdity into their daily grind of a school life. One of their missions involves disseminating messages about the coolness of a fictional person named Kevin Shapiro, heaping praise on this fellow and stirring up weirdness by singing his wonderfulness in mysterious notes and graffiti. Too bad there actually is a Kevin Shapiro at their school. And maybe--just maybe--he wants to take that awesomeness for himself and run. Does Kevin have the Wild Dada Ducks under his thumb? Do they care? Do YOU?
The plot of this novel is kind of ridiculous and pointless, but it's so much fun that it's hard to care. (How could there NOT actually be a real Kevin Shapiro, right?) The manifestation of the Wild Dada Ducks' weird art projects and absurd rebellion will tickle the fancy of all the weirdos--the quirky children who can see themselves in this--and Pinkwater's writing style really has to be experienced. You'll probably like it even if you don't like it. If that makes sense. (It doesn't.)
The plot of this novel is kind of ridiculous and pointless, but it's so much fun that it's hard to care. (How could there NOT actually be a real Kevin Shapiro, right?) The manifestation of the Wild Dada Ducks' weird art projects and absurd rebellion will tickle the fancy of all the weirdos--the quirky children who can see themselves in this--and Pinkwater's writing style really has to be experienced. You'll probably like it even if you don't like it. If that makes sense. (It doesn't.)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews