Customer Reviews

The Artsy Smartsy Club

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Ol' D. Manus has written two sequels to "The Hoboken Chicken Emergency," both nearly 30 years after. In this second sequel, a later generation has inherited Henrietta, the 6-foot tall chicken, and now she pals around with Nick Itch and his friends Loretta Fischetti and Bruno Ugg in Hoboken.

This coming of art story begins with the work of a mysterious screever -- a sidewalk chalk artist. It leads the brave trio on forbidden and fascinating journeys to Manhattan, where Henrietta escorts them to a museum dressed as a nun and they meet, among other completely believable characters, legendary art dealer Davis Davisdavis; actually, Nick's father, with his affected British vocabulary, is one of my favorite minor characters, of which there are plenty in this fast-paced and get-off-your-duff-and-do-it motivational novel.

Lest you think this is a novel that will find its place primarily in the Pinkwater chicken oeuvre, you should know that this is a book for aspiring artists, which is to say, everyone, not just those fascinated with extremely large and friendly fowl.

Don't read this book if you:
1) Like to spend time shouting into fans.
2) Like to throw toilet paper into fans.
3) Enjoy doing the first two with the fan turned on.
4) Fly an American flag in front of your house all the time.
5) Rather watch bowling on TV while eating raw liver.

Do read this book if you:
1) Enjoy speaking with an affected British accent.
2) Like two hundred pound chickens.
3) Grew up learning about art in basements, garages, and museums
4) Don't have a problem with professional underemployment.
5) Have a Ph.D. in physics.

I started reading Daniel Pinkwater's books after hearing him on NPR many years ago. At that time I had only a 13yr old son and I loved reading books that we both could relate to. Since then we have read every Pinkwater book we could lay our hands on and with the arrival of two more children, the books have been read over and over. Watching each child relate differently to the characters is a joy to watch.
I truly believe the Daniel Pinkwater's books are responsible for inspiring my kids to love reading passionately. Now my children are 29, 14, and 9 both boys and a girl, I still am reading and rereading theses books. The Artsy Smartsy Club is the favorite of all the books so far and is the one the kids recommend to any one interested in starting their own relationship with Daniel Pinkwater's writing.

The three children from "Looking for Bobowicz" (and their giant chicken) learn about art in this funny book by Daniel Pinkwater, the third in his "Hoboken Chicken Emergency" series.

My son (age 7) picked out this book, primarily because he liked the title and cover graphic, and enjoys art and likes chickens.

I found reading it to be painful, due to the writer's annoying insistence on wrapping all dialog in a simple form which insists on full names followed by "said":

"Something something" Bruno Ugg said.
"Something else" Beacham the Bum said.

This gets tiring very quickly, and underestimates children's ability to handle complex thoughts or nuances of speech.

Second, the children are allowed to engage in behavior that reflects on parental negligence:

- running into a street person and striking up a friendship
- taking the train into NYC unsupervised
- going into alleys to practice their chalk drawing

I'm no Puritan, but these are not exactly the kinds of behavior that I want to encourage in my child.

Last, the book injects political denigrations against one particular party (one guess at which one, but it doesn't really matter which). Let's leave the politics out of the books for kids, shall we?

If you want to instill a can-do attitude in your children, try "City of Ember" instead.

If you want to instill a love of art, spend the time with your child drawing, painting, or gazing up at the Milky Way on a camping trip.