Status
Available
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
Description
When shoelace heir Neddie Wentworthstein and his family take the train from Chicago to Los Angeles in the 1940s, he winds up in possession of a valuable Indian turtle artifact whose owner is supposed to be able to prevent the impending destruction of the world, but he is not sure exactly how.
Media reviews
So, it's your basic Daniel Pinkwater plot: hilarious, goofy, sweet, wildly imaginative, and filled with food and adventure. I loved every page.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jennyo
This is a great little story about a kid who moves from Chicago to L.A. and has lots of adventures along the way. There's a very important turtle, a swashbuckling movie star and his son, a circus, and even a mammoth. Pinkwater's a good storyteller, and I think my kids will absolutely love this
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book. I can't wait to read it aloud to them. You know how some books just cry out to be read aloud? This is one of those. It's magical and funny and a joy to read from beginning to end. Show Less
LibraryThing member seniwati
I loved this. It's weird and combines a relentless plot with enough non-sequiturs to keep it interesting. I'm on the list for his follow-on book, the Yggesey. This is a great young adult book and also good for someone like me with a case of arrested development.
LibraryThing member delphica
(#33 in the 2009 Book Challenge)
Oh, Daniel Pinkwater, I love you so. I would totally run away with you (in a chaste way) to go live on an island populated by reptiles. I think if anyone else tried to do what he does with his wacky plots, it would come off as contrived and trying too hard and
Grade: B+
Recommended: Entertaining middle reader with boy and girl appeal, and would be a good read-aloud. Excellent for fans of turtles, and 1940s era Hollywood.
Oh, Daniel Pinkwater, I love you so. I would totally run away with you (in a chaste way) to go live on an island populated by reptiles. I think if anyone else tried to do what he does with his wacky plots, it would come off as contrived and trying too hard and
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gimmicky. Somehow his books end up great. While going from Chicago to LA on the Super Chief in the 1940s, Neddie Wentworthstein is given a small turtle by a Navajo shaman that starts him off on a series of strange adventures involving Hollywood, the film industry, a ghost bellboy, and his military school. My favorite line was when his teenage sister refused to continue touring around LA with their parents, and declared she wasn't going to keep driving around like the Grapes of Wrath. There were some of the usual nods to the rest of the Pinkwater universe, like the fat men from outer space and the game show host Eddie Eft.Grade: B+
Recommended: Entertaining middle reader with boy and girl appeal, and would be a good read-aloud. Excellent for fans of turtles, and 1940s era Hollywood.
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LibraryThing member krau0098
I had no idea what to expect from this book, but with a subtitle of "How Neddie took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization", how can you go wrong? I actually saw the sequel to this book "The Yggyssey" and it peaked my interest, so I got the first book from the library and read it.
Neddie lives in Chicago, but he would really like to eat hamburgers at the Brown Derby in LA one day. He tells his dad and his dad agrees that would be cool. So on a whim the family packs up and moves to LA. On the way there an Indian shaman (who can be multiple places at once) gives Neddie a stone turtle and tells him it is really important. Neddie misses his train and goes on a crazy road trip to LA, where some creepy man tries to steal his turtle. What if Ned's turtle really is the key to saving the world from total annihilation? Throw in a ghost, some prehistoric creatures, a circus, a military school, a man with blue gums, and some alien policemen; and you have yourself a story like none I have ever read before.
This was an awesome book. It is a fun and quick read, with surprising depth. The characters are all quirky, funny, and interesting. I liked every single one of them. Billy the Ghost was great and I really enjoyed Iggy. The road trip they go on down route 66 was very interesting and really made you wish that we were still in the good ole' America of the past. Much of the book is a young boy's view of nostalgic America, and is most amusing. This book was just a riot from beginning to end. The chapters are short but compelling; making the book very hard to put down!
This is one of those books that is hard to describe. It is a mixture of adventure, nostalgia, humor, fantasy, and just all out good ole' craziness. It would be suitable to read to kids of any age and I think adults of all ages will get a kick out of it too. After I finished this book I really wished that I had the Yggyssey to read. This book completely wraps up the story but it was just so much fun I wanted more!!! I am kind of disappointed that I got it from the library because I want to keep it; so I guess I will have to buy myself a copy.
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This was an absolutely wonderful book. I don't know why I haven't heard of Pinkwater before. Oddly enough after I read this book Gaiman mentioned Pinkwater as one of his favorite writers on his blog; so I guess you can't get a better recommendation than that!Neddie lives in Chicago, but he would really like to eat hamburgers at the Brown Derby in LA one day. He tells his dad and his dad agrees that would be cool. So on a whim the family packs up and moves to LA. On the way there an Indian shaman (who can be multiple places at once) gives Neddie a stone turtle and tells him it is really important. Neddie misses his train and goes on a crazy road trip to LA, where some creepy man tries to steal his turtle. What if Ned's turtle really is the key to saving the world from total annihilation? Throw in a ghost, some prehistoric creatures, a circus, a military school, a man with blue gums, and some alien policemen; and you have yourself a story like none I have ever read before.
This was an awesome book. It is a fun and quick read, with surprising depth. The characters are all quirky, funny, and interesting. I liked every single one of them. Billy the Ghost was great and I really enjoyed Iggy. The road trip they go on down route 66 was very interesting and really made you wish that we were still in the good ole' America of the past. Much of the book is a young boy's view of nostalgic America, and is most amusing. This book was just a riot from beginning to end. The chapters are short but compelling; making the book very hard to put down!
This is one of those books that is hard to describe. It is a mixture of adventure, nostalgia, humor, fantasy, and just all out good ole' craziness. It would be suitable to read to kids of any age and I think adults of all ages will get a kick out of it too. After I finished this book I really wished that I had the Yggyssey to read. This book completely wraps up the story but it was just so much fun I wanted more!!! I am kind of disappointed that I got it from the library because I want to keep it; so I guess I will have to buy myself a copy.
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LibraryThing member amydross
My first Pinkwater since Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death. We listened to this on tape -- it was charming and amusing, filled with wonderful off-the-cuff retro details, but I lost interest in the MacGuffin-driven plot pretty fast.
LibraryThing member scote23
Finding it a little hard to get into so far...
I found that the story didn't really pick up until the end of disc 2 or the beginning of 3. I found myself drifting off a lot. It does get better toward the end and there are definitely snorting moments. Good if you can make it past the beginning. Also,
I found that the story didn't really pick up until the end of disc 2 or the beginning of 3. I found myself drifting off a lot. It does get better toward the end and there are definitely snorting moments. Good if you can make it past the beginning. Also,
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I think this is one where I would have enjoyed it more in its book form than the audio. Show Less
LibraryThing member cindywho
Pinkwater does manage to pull off quirkiness in a way that comes across as a sense of wonder and fun. Most of the story is a 50's nostalgia trip to Los Angeles, the rest is some kind of trippy religious experience, which is not as fun, though not awful. Pinkwater narrates the audio book well.
LibraryThing member steller0707
I really enjoyed this book, recommended to me by my turtle-loving, 9-year-old grandson. It's unusual for a book aimed at this age group to take place in the 1940's with references to spam and the (unheard of!) cost of going to the movies. But it has adventure, odd characters, mysterious happenings,
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ghosts and enough silliness to keep you page-turning. Show Less