The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror

Rating:
Summary: Snarkout Number Two!
Review: Sequel to The Snarkout Boys and The Avacado of Death, this is another great book by D.M. Pinkwater. While it obviously couldn't compare to the origional, simply because the first was SO good, this book is still great. I read the Avacado of Death when I was in middle school (for the first time at least), and didn't discover the sequel until I was in college. So naturally that's a rather long time and my expectations were a little high I'm sure. Still, it was great to see all the characters again, and see Walter and Winston having another adventure. This book is fun to read and I highly reccomend it.

Rating:
Summary: When snarking and werewolves were in flower
Review: Snarking: sneaking out when your parents are asleep, esp. to go to the theater and see the latest (or oldest) movie. Master snarkers Winston, Walter, and Rat have the technique down pat and somewhat uneventful until one night when Rat decides she wants to go to the Dharma Buns Coffee House. That night begins an adventure replete with werewolves, poets, borgelnuskies, the Napoleon of crime, and other assorted good guys and bad guys.

The town of Baconburg has never seen such a hodgepodge of people and adventures. At least not since "The Snarkout Boys & the Avocado of Death." But as long as they don't run out of Indian fruit bats, everything and everyone should turn out okay.

First published in 1984, the story doesn't seem out of date for young people born in the past few years. But to adults, parents, even young senior adults, some references bring a sense of nostalgia: Drive in movies, shopping malls. Although this is not the first in the series, the story stands alone quite well -- it actually makes one want to find the rest and read/listen to them, too. The action is swift, the characters interesting, and the plot complicated in a witty, twisted sort of way.

Pinkwater takes the reader from the familiar to the bizarre to the impossible in just a short ride. He's created a weird alternate reality that is fun for readers of all ages. In his narration he rushes headlong from beginning to end, leaving the listener breathless and tickling your fancy.

Rating:
Summary: Borgelnuskies, werewolves and fire! Oh my!
Review: When I was in fifth grade, I thought this was the funniest and most entertaining book in the world. Twenty years later, despite high school, college and law school, my opinion of it is just as high. This is a wild, wacky, cult-classic that kids, young adults and even parents can read, enjoy and re-read over and over.

The sequel to _The Snarkout Boys & the Avocado of Death_, the book features the return of snarkers Walter, Winston and Rat, as well as Uncle Flipping; Osgood Sigerson and Dr. Sacker; the Mighty Gorilla; and that rascally Napoleon of Crime, Wallace Nussbaum. Just as the young snarkers discover the Dharma Buns Coffee House and a rising Transylvanian poet, the city of Baconburg begins to be terrorized nightly by something dark and fast and ... furry? A werewolf?! Quick, grab your stuffed Indian fruit bat and defend yourself!

Just as in _Avocado_, Pinkwater writes simply and clearly, deftly weaving the different plot-threads into a (literally) blazing finale. Quite simply, this is a great, often gut-busting, blissfully zany ride. (I only wish he'd write another one!) I ordered a copy off the internet, read it twice, and am donating it to my local library so that kids can enjoy it just as much as I did, back 'in the day'. Praise St. Barbara of Blint, five burning stars!