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Neddie & Friends #2
The Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered What Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out Where They Went, and Went There
A sequel to critically acclaimed THE NEDDIAD told from the point of view of Ned's friend, Iggy
La Brea Woman is missing. Valentino, too. The ghosts of Los Angeles are disappearing right and left!
Iggy Birnbaum is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, no matter what Neddie Wentworthstein and Seamus Finn say.
There’s just the little matter of traveling to another plane of existence, first…and then, of course, not pissing off a witch once she gets there.
From L.A. to Old New Hackensack, fans of The Neddiad will be delighted to join up with Iggy, Neddie, Seamus, and the usual apparitional entourage for another weird and wonderful adventure by Daniel Pinkwater. As Neil Gaiman said about the first book: "it's funny and tender and strange and impossible to describe. What Pinkwater does is magic and I'm grateful for it."
THE IGGYSSEY is vintage Pinkwater: laugh out loud funny, incredible characters, dialogue, humor. And like THE NEDDIAD, this book will be similarly illustrated throughout by Calef Brown.
La Brea Woman is missing. Valentino, too. The ghosts of Los Angeles are disappearing right and left!
Iggy Birnbaum is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, no matter what Neddie Wentworthstein and Seamus Finn say.
There’s just the little matter of traveling to another plane of existence, first…and then, of course, not pissing off a witch once she gets there.
From L.A. to Old New Hackensack, fans of The Neddiad will be delighted to join up with Iggy, Neddie, Seamus, and the usual apparitional entourage for another weird and wonderful adventure by Daniel Pinkwater. As Neil Gaiman said about the first book: "it's funny and tender and strange and impossible to describe. What Pinkwater does is magic and I'm grateful for it."
THE IGGYSSEY is vintage Pinkwater: laugh out loud funny, incredible characters, dialogue, humor. And like THE NEDDIAD, this book will be similarly illustrated throughout by Calef Brown.
256 pages, Paperback
First published February 16, 2009
21 people are currently reading
360 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Pinkwater
156 books414 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 102 reviews
February 15, 2018
Daniel Pinkwater has never let me down. I wish he was my long lost uncle. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and say something that will prove without a shadow of a doubt how I feel about him: He reminds me of my Dad. Yep, I said it.
My Dad was Google before Google. You could ask him something about anything and he would know something about it. I believe Mr. Pinkwater possesses that same intellect, and he's used that to write hilarious stories that are peppered with factoids. What an absolutely fascinating human being. I wish I could meet him!
From the book:
Karma is what happens to you because of what you did --- every action has a reaction, and if you live groovily, you will have groovy experiences.
My Dad was Google before Google. You could ask him something about anything and he would know something about it. I believe Mr. Pinkwater possesses that same intellect, and he's used that to write hilarious stories that are peppered with factoids. What an absolutely fascinating human being. I wish I could meet him!
From the book:
Karma is what happens to you because of what you did --- every action has a reaction, and if you live groovily, you will have groovy experiences.
March 7, 2024
daniel pinkwater fandom rise up
August 16, 2009
Another classic Pinkwater romp. Yggdrasil, Neddie, and Seamus set off on an adventure to see why all of their ghost friends from the Hermione Hotel have disappeared, and where they have gone. They end up in an alternate reality where kids are randomly rounded up and brainwashed with TV in a hole in the ground, and people do urban mountaineering on buildings, and the police are dogs, etc. etc. My favorite part of the book is when the group finds a community of tiny hippies called Hoopies that feed the kids for several days and hook them up with travel granola and some good advice: "Stay on the road! Don't play cards with strangers! If you meet a witch, don't piss her off! Don't piss off a witch! Don't trust anyone over ninety!" Of course, the next person that the kids encounter on their journey is a witch... and so it goes. One criticism: Mr. Pinkwater doesn't seem to know how to wrap up a book, but I'm hoping in this case that there will be a third book to follow... what would it be called, though?
November 30, 2010
So I was very taken in by the name of the book. I was also drawn by the Neil Gaiman blurb on the cover. What neither of these can account for however is how a kids' book (and not typical young adult, but like 8-11) ended up with the grown up books. This isn't typically a genre I'd read, but I'll do my best to be fair.
To begin with I did enjoy the books. The 2 page chapters and super short sentences took some getting used to, but overall Pinkwater had a good rhythm to things. There are some obvious pokes a some modern child rearing techniques, but these "no stress" philosophies seem to carry over to the main plot. Most of the drama is taken out of the mystery as soon as the main plot starts to take off. The ghost disappearances become not a source of mystery and possible evil tidings, but rather an insignificant event that the protagonists will have no real affect on.
The characters themselves were a little bland too. While each had some degree of identity, there were plenty of conversations where any of 3 to 5 characters could be saying any line. In such a short space that doesn't do much for caring about individuals or being drawn into their world. What I thought were outlying characters or plot points were kind of dropped too. There were a few early scenes that seemed to be more of the "look we're kids too" type than the type to have any real bearing on the story.
Parts of the story were fun. I could see how this would be good for a child as well. It's easy, designed for limited attention spans, and has little to no deeper meaning...unless you're trying to find the rather obvious Odyssey parallels. While this was a moderately fun read, it doesn't come close to rising to the level of recommended for adults.
To begin with I did enjoy the books. The 2 page chapters and super short sentences took some getting used to, but overall Pinkwater had a good rhythm to things. There are some obvious pokes a some modern child rearing techniques, but these "no stress" philosophies seem to carry over to the main plot. Most of the drama is taken out of the mystery as soon as the main plot starts to take off. The ghost disappearances become not a source of mystery and possible evil tidings, but rather an insignificant event that the protagonists will have no real affect on.
The characters themselves were a little bland too. While each had some degree of identity, there were plenty of conversations where any of 3 to 5 characters could be saying any line. In such a short space that doesn't do much for caring about individuals or being drawn into their world. What I thought were outlying characters or plot points were kind of dropped too. There were a few early scenes that seemed to be more of the "look we're kids too" type than the type to have any real bearing on the story.
Parts of the story were fun. I could see how this would be good for a child as well. It's easy, designed for limited attention spans, and has little to no deeper meaning...unless you're trying to find the rather obvious Odyssey parallels. While this was a moderately fun read, it doesn't come close to rising to the level of recommended for adults.
April 22, 2014
This is a fine second installment of the series. I'm not sure I love the idea that Neddie is no longer the first person narrator, but that's no big deal. And while the Pinkwater wacky world generator is going full tilt, it seems very much like an Alice in Wonderland tale. This surely would make a nice movie one day, with all sorts of weird creatures and giant talking heads. I loved the imagery.
Highly recommended as good bedtime reading with kids.
Highly recommended as good bedtime reading with kids.
June 28, 2009
Mucho fun! Read this book. (But read The Neddiad first.)
August 3, 2017
I read a lot of YA during the hot months. It's a thing. I enjoy it. This summer has been FULL of bad-servicable choices on my part- some bad enough to be fun, some perfectly fine, a few just plain bad.
This is none of that. This is a genuinely good book. I feel like a lot of YA is written about precocious kids by people who either were not, or do not remember what it was like to be precocious children. This kid, however, is an entirely believable precocious child. When reality doesn't make sense (Preparing for atomic war by practicing "duck and cover"? Please.) then things that don't make sense are easy to accept as reality (ghosts? why not). There's a line when the kids are discussing whether or not they are turning into cats, one of them points out that they've all grown whiskers, and another asks "well, how do you know this isn't just puberty?" that utterly encompasses the confusion of being a smart kid with not nearly enough data.
I laughed out loud, and I'm an adult. I do not have any teenage kids for a test audience, but I 100% recommend this one.
This is none of that. This is a genuinely good book. I feel like a lot of YA is written about precocious kids by people who either were not, or do not remember what it was like to be precocious children. This kid, however, is an entirely believable precocious child. When reality doesn't make sense (Preparing for atomic war by practicing "duck and cover"? Please.) then things that don't make sense are easy to accept as reality (ghosts? why not). There's a line when the kids are discussing whether or not they are turning into cats, one of them points out that they've all grown whiskers, and another asks "well, how do you know this isn't just puberty?" that utterly encompasses the confusion of being a smart kid with not nearly enough data.
I laughed out loud, and I'm an adult. I do not have any teenage kids for a test audience, but I 100% recommend this one.
April 18, 2025
Pull quote/note
"[My mother] and my father met when the studio sent him to see her about the morbid fear of horses he had developed. He wasn't so much afraid to ride them, but when he was in bed he would imagine that there were horses in his living room, drinking his liquor and laughing at him. ...She helped him to understand that his problem arose partly from having grown up in the glue business, and also that the horses probably were laughing at him for being in those lousy Baritone Buckaroo movies." (25-26/427)
March 12, 2019
The second in Pinkwater's, as of now, trilogy, nestled between "The Neddiad" and "Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl", this book does not have the nostalgic drive of the first oe or the sheer mania of the third, but it is still a lot of fun.
Daniel Pinkwater is a national treasure and his value to parents of kids moving through grade school, as someone who is funny and intriguing to such a wide variety of maturities, is beyond measure.
Daniel Pinkwater is a national treasure and his value to parents of kids moving through grade school, as someone who is funny and intriguing to such a wide variety of maturities, is beyond measure.
May 24, 2020
I like the characters, and the narrator's snarky voice! It's set further in the past than I remembered, although I do remember the stucco restaurants being a thing in the first book as well. This one's got a lot of ghostly activity, and manages to have a fairly cohesive plot, although the action swerves every couple of chapters to introduce new characters and locations. Good for those who are easily bored, I would say!
August 20, 2021
Review by B.L. : "I never thought I'd like a sequel more than an original, and yet here we are. This book had the fantastic simplicity I loved in The Neddiad, but in a fantasy setting. And I can't quite pinpoint why, but this book made me feel very nostalgic, which is both fascinating, and very confusing, as I had never read or heard of this book before. Overall, amazing book, would definitely recommend."
May 11, 2023
Not nearly as good as the previous book, The Neddiad, unfortunately.
But well worth reading, if only to "meet" the ghosts of Fats Waller and Harry Houdini!
Daniel Manus Pinkwater's knowledge of pop culture is so much fun.
But well worth reading, if only to "meet" the ghosts of Fats Waller and Harry Houdini!
Daniel Manus Pinkwater's knowledge of pop culture is so much fun.
September 20, 2018
Well. That was weird.
March 13, 2020
It’s got a lot of the elements that I love in Pinkwater books. I felt like the book was hurried, that it didn’t give itself time to dig into the world or build up the tension.
August 4, 2020
Sequel to the Neddiad. Another weird book.
August 20, 2021
This was very Pinkwater in all the best ways. Heroes journey, good food, random twists, good friends.
May 27, 2023
A simpler than the Nediad and less rooted in real life / history so a little disappointing.
November 30, 2023
This one was an easier read and more fun throughout than the first book, but I think the first book was more exciting in the end.
November 13, 2019
The Yggyssey had big shoes to fill following The Neddiad. Though I didn't love this book as much as its predecessor, it was still a fun time and wonderfully absurd.
I love that the ghost lore in this series has no rules or explanations. It's very consistent in its inconsistencies—which is probably a good way of describing this book as a whole.
I like that The Yggyssey took that relatively unexplored element of The Neddiad—ghosts—and explored it. In spirit and style the novels are, of course, similar, but unlike a lot series for this age group, the two novels are actually very different from one another, especially in the way of plot. This plot is a lot more mobile and it's an adventure. I do also think, though, that it took a bit to find itself. The "Went There" part of The Yggyssey ended up being a surprisingly short part of the novel. On the whole, though, it was still a load of fun.
I love that the ghost lore in this series has no rules or explanations. It's very consistent in its inconsistencies—which is probably a good way of describing this book as a whole.
I like that The Yggyssey took that relatively unexplored element of The Neddiad—ghosts—and explored it. In spirit and style the novels are, of course, similar, but unlike a lot series for this age group, the two novels are actually very different from one another, especially in the way of plot. This plot is a lot more mobile and it's an adventure. I do also think, though, that it took a bit to find itself. The "Went There" part of The Yggyssey ended up being a surprisingly short part of the novel. On the whole, though, it was still a load of fun.
December 30, 2010
This book was the sequel to Pinkwater's "The Neddiad". While this book wasn't as hilarious and quirky as "The Neddiad" it was still a great read.
Iggy is wondering why the ghosts that live in the hotel her and her parents permanently inhabit are disappearing. With the help of the main characters from the Neddiad (Neddie and Seamus) she tries to find out. As with the Neddiad the path to the answer is funny, not at all straight-forward, and full of general craziness.
I was excited that this book was told from Iggy's perspective; I really liked her character in the Neddiad. I was surprised to find that I didn't enjoy her perspective quite as much as Neddie's. Neddie was just so matter-of-fact and fascinated by everything that it was really funny to follow his thoughts. Iggy is more practical and down-to-earth. I also missed the cross-country traveling present in "The Neddiad"; the majority of this book takes place in LA.
The other thing that bothered me a bit was that the beginning of the book was rather slow. About half way through things really take-off as the kids start off on their adventure to find the ghosts, but it takes too long to set all that up. Also this story doesn't have the-world-is-ending urgency of the first novel.
Despite the above complaints, this book was still a fun and quirky read. Some of the coincidences that take place, the crazy references, and the quirky characters are amazing. It was a very hard book to put down. I think you could read this book without reading "The Neddiad"; although you will miss out on some of the jokes in this book as well as the better of the two books (which is "The Neddiad").
It is again a book I would recommend to all types and ages of people. I can't wait to read it to my son when he gets a few years older (at two he doesn't have the patience for non-picture books yet). Both "The Neddiad" and "The Yggyssey" were great books. They prompted me to acquire more of Daniel Pinkwater's previous works. He is such an interesting (and hilarious) storyteller.
Iggy is wondering why the ghosts that live in the hotel her and her parents permanently inhabit are disappearing. With the help of the main characters from the Neddiad (Neddie and Seamus) she tries to find out. As with the Neddiad the path to the answer is funny, not at all straight-forward, and full of general craziness.
I was excited that this book was told from Iggy's perspective; I really liked her character in the Neddiad. I was surprised to find that I didn't enjoy her perspective quite as much as Neddie's. Neddie was just so matter-of-fact and fascinated by everything that it was really funny to follow his thoughts. Iggy is more practical and down-to-earth. I also missed the cross-country traveling present in "The Neddiad"; the majority of this book takes place in LA.
The other thing that bothered me a bit was that the beginning of the book was rather slow. About half way through things really take-off as the kids start off on their adventure to find the ghosts, but it takes too long to set all that up. Also this story doesn't have the-world-is-ending urgency of the first novel.
Despite the above complaints, this book was still a fun and quirky read. Some of the coincidences that take place, the crazy references, and the quirky characters are amazing. It was a very hard book to put down. I think you could read this book without reading "The Neddiad"; although you will miss out on some of the jokes in this book as well as the better of the two books (which is "The Neddiad").
It is again a book I would recommend to all types and ages of people. I can't wait to read it to my son when he gets a few years older (at two he doesn't have the patience for non-picture books yet). Both "The Neddiad" and "The Yggyssey" were great books. They prompted me to acquire more of Daniel Pinkwater's previous works. He is such an interesting (and hilarious) storyteller.
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February 28, 2015The book yggyssey is a very odd book in my opinion it has a very unique storyline. This girl named Yggdrasil other known as iggy and she lives with ghosts. There is her pet bunny who is telling her about a place where all the ghosts go. She decides that she has to get down to the bottle of where the ghosts all disappear to. As iggy takes this journey into all these mysterious places to find where all the ghosts go. She brings along a few friends and face a few difficult challenges along the way but nothing will stop her perseverance. This brings her a long way and se reaches her destination of Hackensack. She gets to meet a family friend and intends to return home where she belong.
What I truly like about this book is the characters and the storyline. The character iggy was interesting and was full of life. She kept on her feet and always open minded. She really loves her father legacy and what he did back in the old days. She clearly enjoys the attention she gets from everyone that knows her father and she loves talking to them. It makes her a better person when she gets to interact with other people. I found this pretty interesting that She is so open minded. This has continue to lead her down a great path to a better life.
The person I would like to read is my friends and family. They truly love to read book that has such great quality and weird and unusual traits. Brings me to the conclusion of how this book would be good for teenagers to read also. I think the 9-10th graders would like to read this book because it's not a typical book. It has a different style and I would recommend it to teachers that have not read this book yet. When I looked at this book I really didn't want to read it due to the cover. Now when I actually read it, it turned into a better book then I expected. Reading this book has become a great experience and has brought me with many new ideas about what I should do in my days.
What I truly like about this book is the characters and the storyline. The character iggy was interesting and was full of life. She kept on her feet and always open minded. She really loves her father legacy and what he did back in the old days. She clearly enjoys the attention she gets from everyone that knows her father and she loves talking to them. It makes her a better person when she gets to interact with other people. I found this pretty interesting that She is so open minded. This has continue to lead her down a great path to a better life.
The person I would like to read is my friends and family. They truly love to read book that has such great quality and weird and unusual traits. Brings me to the conclusion of how this book would be good for teenagers to read also. I think the 9-10th graders would like to read this book because it's not a typical book. It has a different style and I would recommend it to teachers that have not read this book yet. When I looked at this book I really didn't want to read it due to the cover. Now when I actually read it, it turned into a better book then I expected. Reading this book has become a great experience and has brought me with many new ideas about what I should do in my days.
November 25, 2014
Iggy is in a city full of ghosts, he lives in a hotel in Los Angeles and thinks of the ghosts as nothing significant. Her friends Neddie and Seamus are all for the ghost life as well, and these three friends make a great team on the adventure that begins throughout this story.
The three friends go to two different schools, Iggy is at one where there is "no stress" allowed. Anything and everything is boring and everything is optional. This is the life Iggy lives, and it is anything but extraordinary. Except for the whole ghost thing. Neddie and Seamus go to a completely strict school, no fun, all learning. These 3 friends come to a conclusion one day that they are completely bored, so the hop out of school and take a friends car to the nearest cafe...driven by one of their older ghost friends.
This is an ordinary thing, until the friends and the ghost are caught by a ghost hunter from the nearby college. After the college student makes his way into the scene of these three friends lives, along with the ghosts, their lives are no longer boring. When the ghosts start to disappear gradually from the town, Iggy is determined to find out why.
The three friends and the college student go off on a crazy adventure to the skinny mountain in the underworld where the ghosts are soon to have a party. But before the humans enter the party, they get stuck in plenty of fairy tale scenes, such as getting sucked into a witches home and leaving with cat whiskers.
The humans decide that after their encounter with the witches, the underworld may do better off without them having all the power. Iggy and her friends take an adventure to get the turtle stone and take back the power for the good instead of evil, and do it just in time for the ghost party.
The three friends go to two different schools, Iggy is at one where there is "no stress" allowed. Anything and everything is boring and everything is optional. This is the life Iggy lives, and it is anything but extraordinary. Except for the whole ghost thing. Neddie and Seamus go to a completely strict school, no fun, all learning. These 3 friends come to a conclusion one day that they are completely bored, so the hop out of school and take a friends car to the nearest cafe...driven by one of their older ghost friends.
This is an ordinary thing, until the friends and the ghost are caught by a ghost hunter from the nearby college. After the college student makes his way into the scene of these three friends lives, along with the ghosts, their lives are no longer boring. When the ghosts start to disappear gradually from the town, Iggy is determined to find out why.
The three friends and the college student go off on a crazy adventure to the skinny mountain in the underworld where the ghosts are soon to have a party. But before the humans enter the party, they get stuck in plenty of fairy tale scenes, such as getting sucked into a witches home and leaving with cat whiskers.
The humans decide that after their encounter with the witches, the underworld may do better off without them having all the power. Iggy and her friends take an adventure to get the turtle stone and take back the power for the good instead of evil, and do it just in time for the ghost party.
July 28, 2023
This book just feels absurd and I love it (I also didn't read the first book).
September 14, 2011
The Yggssey by Daniel Pinkwater is the sequel to The Neddiad. As the Greek inspired title implies, this book follows Iggy, aka Yggdrasil. She is the girl who lives in a hotel haunted by Hollywood movie star ghosts. She's noticed now that the ghosts are going missing and she decides to figure out why they're leaving and where they are going.
If The Neddiad was Pinkwater's Iliad, or more specifically, a long on-going war, ultimately decided not by a horse but a turtle, then The Yggssey is the author's Odyssey. Just as Odysseus was trying to find his way home, Iggy tracking of the ghosts leads her to understanding her importance and the significance of her name.
Now in one of those odd thematic link-ups I see sometimes while reading multiple books, Iggy's name is the Norse word for the world tree. It's also the tree that's on the portal that plays such a big part in Fullmetal Alchemist. While there is no alchemy in The Yggyssey there is travel between worlds, ghosts and magical realism.
For me though, the book lacked the focus of The Neddiad. There are just too many things going on. The missing ghosts mystery melds into an Oz and Wonderland mashup. To make things even more complicated there are guest appearances from fictional characters like Harvy.
If The Neddiad was Pinkwater's Iliad, or more specifically, a long on-going war, ultimately decided not by a horse but a turtle, then The Yggssey is the author's Odyssey. Just as Odysseus was trying to find his way home, Iggy tracking of the ghosts leads her to understanding her importance and the significance of her name.
Now in one of those odd thematic link-ups I see sometimes while reading multiple books, Iggy's name is the Norse word for the world tree. It's also the tree that's on the portal that plays such a big part in Fullmetal Alchemist. While there is no alchemy in The Yggyssey there is travel between worlds, ghosts and magical realism.
For me though, the book lacked the focus of The Neddiad. There are just too many things going on. The missing ghosts mystery melds into an Oz and Wonderland mashup. To make things even more complicated there are guest appearances from fictional characters like Harvy.
November 28, 2009
In this wacky sequel to The Neddiad, Yggdrasil Birnbaum (Iggy for short), and her friends live in the residential Hermione Hotel, talking and hanging out with movie stars, cowboys, and ghosts (famous and not so famous). When Iggy’s ghost friends start to disappear, she wants to know why. In this parallel of the Odyssey, Iggy and three friends follow her ghost bunny friend, Chase, through a portal into a zany underworld full of familiar and unfamiliar characters from myths and fairy tales.
Pinkwater’s off-beat humor rides again through a cast of toads, aging hippies, good and bad witches (including one named Wanda who has millions of cats), werewolves, vampires, urban mountaineering, and the King of the Ravens, who’s channeling Elvis. For those who want to notice, Pinkwater’s tale also acts as a social commentary on commercialism, consumerism, and how children are treated in our society. An easy fast read with lots of white space, short chapters, and light-hearted silliness.
Pinkwater’s off-beat humor rides again through a cast of toads, aging hippies, good and bad witches (including one named Wanda who has millions of cats), werewolves, vampires, urban mountaineering, and the King of the Ravens, who’s channeling Elvis. For those who want to notice, Pinkwater’s tale also acts as a social commentary on commercialism, consumerism, and how children are treated in our society. An easy fast read with lots of white space, short chapters, and light-hearted silliness.
January 1, 2014
I never reviewed this when I added it to my list here, but I have notes I made at the time I read it:
I liked how Pinkwater shamelessly exploited his knowledge of Yiddish to create a bunch of funny insider jokes. For example, in the second book there is a Nisei character named Ken Ahara who is studying ghostology. (His name sounds like a common Yiddish expression for averting the Evil Eye--his advisor is Professor Malocchio.) Kid A liked it that people said "Bupkis!" Really there were a lot of funny things. I was also impressed that the one identifiably Jewish character was the one named Seamus Finn.
My kid liked that the heroes of both the Neddiad and the Yggyssey "finds something peculiar is happening and take a few steps to accomplish what they want to do. In the second book, you learn a turtle and a bunny can be the same thing. The books are set in the 1950s in LA. They had tiny televisions, pizza wasn't popular yet and people liked healthfood."
Daniel Pinkwater could definitely write more female protagonists. He did great with this one.
I liked how Pinkwater shamelessly exploited his knowledge of Yiddish to create a bunch of funny insider jokes. For example, in the second book there is a Nisei character named Ken Ahara who is studying ghostology. (His name sounds like a common Yiddish expression for averting the Evil Eye--his advisor is Professor Malocchio.) Kid A liked it that people said "Bupkis!" Really there were a lot of funny things. I was also impressed that the one identifiably Jewish character was the one named Seamus Finn.
My kid liked that the heroes of both the Neddiad and the Yggyssey "finds something peculiar is happening and take a few steps to accomplish what they want to do. In the second book, you learn a turtle and a bunny can be the same thing. The books are set in the 1950s in LA. They had tiny televisions, pizza wasn't popular yet and people liked healthfood."
Daniel Pinkwater could definitely write more female protagonists. He did great with this one.
January 15, 2015
A bit stranger (somehow) and shorter than the Neddiad (at least it seemed like it) and there seemed to be a number of things unresolved by the end. Not sure if Pinkwater had intended to write a trilogy of books when he started writing the Neddiad but this book has some of the makings of a middle story. Very funny, very strange with lots of weird bits of pop culture thrown in for good measure and quite a bit more sarcastic than the first book, owing to the book being narrated by Yggdrasil aka Yggy. Anyone who follows my reviews should know by now that I don't generally describe the plots of books because I don't like spoilers but in this case that would kind of be pointless. Pinkwater books do have plots but they're not very important most of the time, they're really an excuse for a series of wacky surreal adventures. And who doesn't like that? Jerks, that's who.
July 24, 2011
So, apparantly I have gone and read another book that is a sequel without reading the book that comes before it again. That is ok, you don't have to have read the prior book to enjoy this one. Written for children in grades 4 to 9 or so, this is a cute and funny book about Yggdrasil Birnbaum who lives in a haunted hotel and goes on adventure to find out where her ghost friends have been disappearing to. Set in LA in the early 1950s with the ghosts of Rudolph Valentino, LaBrea girl , Chase, the ghost bunny, and many others, this book is full of Pinkwater's highly descriptive fun and nonsense. I personally enjoyed it a lot, but I think that a lot of the puns and humor may be about things that 4th to 9th graders have no knowledge of and so they may miss some of the humor.
August 26, 2013
So SILLY! Iggy is the child of an old-timey movie star and a psychiatrist who believes in letting kids do whatever they like. She lives in an old Hollywood hotel that is full of ghosts. Her friends, who attend a military academy, also are friendly with ghosts. When the kids notice the ghosts are all disappearing they follow a ghostly bunny into an alternate universe that seems a lot like New Jersey, except for the evil witches and mean dictator. The kids battle evil, relate lots of information about life in mid-century Hollywood, and return home to L.A. with their ghostly friends. Kids will enjoy this breezy book, but may miss some of Pinkwater's references. Fun, but not life-changing.
June 13, 2014
It was no Lizard Music, but it was pretty charming.
A difference from the other Pinkwater I’ve read was that this was self-consciously historical, taking place in the he ’50s instead of a vague present-day-at-the-time-of-publication. Wait, no, come to think of it, The Education of Robert Nifkin was historical too. But there’s, like… Well, insert thought here about portal fantasies having more tooth when they’re set in a contested present day rather than a past that has already been rendered safe, and Nifkin was in a genre that isn’t vulnerable to that and its past was very much still contested.
Anyway, yeah, I’m chasing down a bunch of Pinkwater I’ve never read. Waiting on the shelf (well, floor) is a copy of that 5-in-one that has Avocado of Doom and Young Adult Novel.
A difference from the other Pinkwater I’ve read was that this was self-consciously historical, taking place in the he ’50s instead of a vague present-day-at-the-time-of-publication. Wait, no, come to think of it, The Education of Robert Nifkin was historical too. But there’s, like… Well, insert thought here about portal fantasies having more tooth when they’re set in a contested present day rather than a past that has already been rendered safe, and Nifkin was in a genre that isn’t vulnerable to that and its past was very much still contested.
Anyway, yeah, I’m chasing down a bunch of Pinkwater I’ve never read. Waiting on the shelf (well, floor) is a copy of that 5-in-one that has Avocado of Doom and Young Adult Novel.
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