4 : Fantastic Novels [Paperback]

Daniel Pinkwater (Author), Scott Simon (Author)

Book Description

Four-fantastic-books-in-one by the popular author of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency:

Borgel

Yobgorgle

The Worms of Kukumlima

The Snarkout Boys & the Baconburg Horror

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Whether you know Daniel Pinkwater as a children's book author (and you should, he's written over 40 fabulous books) or as a National Public Radio commentator, you must agree that he is a very, very funny guy. Though his books are perfectly nonsensical and absurd in all the best ways, they leave you feeling strangely serene about the universe. Whether his books introduce us to muffin-eating polar bears (Larry), really old time-traveling men (Uncle Borgel), or 266-pound chickens (Henrietta from The Hoboken Chicken Emergency), they each reflect a polite world where people (and other species) basically respect each other--warts, multiple heads, foul smells (we're thinking of the Bloboform), and all. As luck would have it, four of Pinkwater's previously published novels are now combined in one delicious and aptly named paperback volume, 4 Fantastic Novels. In it you'll find Borgel, Yobgorgle: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario, The Worms of Kukumlima, and The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror, none of which will disappoint. Fans will want to pick up 5 Novels as well, a collection which includes Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars, Slaves of Spiegel, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, The Last Guru, and Young Adult Novel.

What are Pinkwater's novels like? Imagine the wondrous science fiction classic A Wrinkle in Time without the heavy cosmos stuff--and seventy times funnier. (In Borgel, for example, 111-year-old Uncle Borgel compares the concept of time to a map of the state of New Jersey and describes space as "sort of like a bagel, but an elliptical one, with poppy seeds.") His fast-paced and funny adventure stories are philosophical and moral, though undercut with such delightfully irreverent goofiness that they never lose their buoyancy, not for a second. Pinkwater reaches out to the kids all over the planet who feel like "the boy from Mars," and shows them that everything is not only going to be just fine, but that life is pretty darn magical. (Ages 9 to 109) --Karin Snelson

About the Author

Daniel Pinkwater is the author of several bestselling children's

books as well as a popular commentator on National Public Radio. He writes

regular reviews on Contentville.com. Daniel lives in Hyde Park, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Aladdin (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689834888
• ISBN-13: 978-0689834882
• Product Dimensions: 1.8 x 5.5 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #929,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel Pinkwater lives with his wife, the illustrator and novelist Jill Pinkwater, and several dogs and cats in a very old farmhouse in New York's Hudson River Valley.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Resurrected from back-order limbo, August 14, 2000

By 

Edward Hume (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 4 : Fantastic Novels (Paperback)

4 Fantastic Novels is the second recent Pinkwater compendium. It contains . . . four fantastic novels by the master which he stole back from indolent publishers.

Borgel is really two stories-one a tale of how a young lad is educated by his eccentric uncle to understand some of the finer points of intellectual life, the other a fantasy yarn which is a kind of road story reminiscent of traveling the highways of an America long gone.

Yobgorgle is about The Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario, based in Rochester, and the adventure of finding it. It mentions a secret passage in the Rochester Public Library. When they moved the library to new digs, they made sure there was a secret passage there, too. A librarian told me they did that because it was mentioned in Yobgorgle.

The Worms of Kukumlima includes some of Mr. Pinkwater's real-life adventures in Africa. The on-safari sections bear careful attention, as they describe the change in being that occurs when you get out into the land where man (and woman) began.

The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror complete the republication of this series that began with 5 Novels, the earlier Pinkwater compendium. The "boys" (one is a girl) are starting to grow up, but their adventures continue.

There. Four fantastic novels resurrected from back-order limbo (how low can publishers go?), they are vintage Pinkwater-I love them all. More, the successful effort to bring good works back to the public is a message to us all about taking charge of our own destiny. Thank you, Daniel.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book, and not just because I'm in it., July 25, 2000

By 

C. Gause (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 4 : Fantastic Novels (Paperback)

Daniel Pinkwater is such a great guy. He doesn't bother with the New York Times when he needs jacket quotes, he goes straight to his fans! These are some of the best books in the world, all here in one volume. Borgel changed my life. It says so on the inside cover so it's true. Yobgorgle is a modern day Flying Dutchman. The Worms of Kukumlima comes complete with giant intelligent worms, and the second Snarkout book is poetry in motion. These books cannot be found in print individually anymore, so for a quadruple dose of funny freaky fantasy, 4 Fantastic Novels is your Rx.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another fantastic collection!, August 3, 2000

By 

Edward Weiss - See all my reviews

This review is from: 4 : Fantastic Novels (Paperback)

The Good Captain Pinkwater has done it again, with a carefully-chosen anthology of 4 classic novels. There's something simply magical about these 4, as well as other Pinkwater yarns. _Borgel_ is my all-time favorite; it just reaches out and appeals to your love for the inane, for your desire to be a kid with an 111+ year-old uncle who takes you on trips through time, space, and the other, for your love of adventure and beatnik poetry. If you haven't read anything by Daniel P. yet, there are many places to start, but reading 4FN should leave you hooked. (And I'm not just saying this because I'm quoted on the inside, as a good number of other Pinkwater readers are too. Isn't that a novel idea, printing praise from actual readers instead of stuffy reviewers who thrive on words like "convoluted" and "weird?")