Customer Reviews

Borgel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I discovered the works of Daniel Pinkwater through one of my nieces, who happened to name her two cats after two characters from "Borgel." Daniel Pinkwater possesses a sheer, mad comic genius. He spins tales that are wildly funny and entertaining, and yet manages to squeeze in a lesson. (Even if that lesson is that animals are stupid or to never listen to what a fish says.)

"Borgel" tells the story of Melvin Spellbound and his uncle Borgel. Borgel is of no clear relation and shows up one day out of the blue. He stays in his room for weeks at a time and the family children may only enter through invitation, wearing a tie. One night Melvin is invited to Borgel's room and he believes that they are running away. They wind up on an adventure through space-time-and-the-other.

Pinkwater peppers his story with hilarity mixed with reality. Borgel and Melvin's space travels are delightfully funny and deepen our appreciation of the wide cast of characters, including Fafner the dog and Freddie the Grivnizoid, as they search space and Hell for the Great Popsicle. Throughout all his whimsy and witty words, Pinkwater truly makes us care about the characters and wraps up a story that may seem to have wandered so far that there would be no coming back. Just like what would happen in space travel, if the Dorbzeldge was to drift past the road barriers.

Whenever I read any of Mr. Pinkwater's books I am amazed at the range and intelligience of this humorist.
"Borgel" has become one of my favorites. From the first chapter I was hooked. The arrival of Borgel ,a flaky, casual genius, to the home of Melvin and his family is like a spark to dry wood. The world that "Uncle Borgel" takes his "Nephew" is fantastic but oddly comparable to our own (though I don't believe you'll be able to get any french fried meteorites in your local McDonald's).
This story moves along with a series of events that keeps one's mind sparked and one's lips twitching with laughter.
Mr. Pinkwater's "Borgel" flows like melted popsicles.

Borgel is a classic example of Daniel Pinkwater's very imaginative, creative, and captivating writing style. A very good example of that indeed , I enjoyed it thoroughly. The basic story is as follows, a boy who lives in a relatively boring, normal family, one day is startled by a man at the front door claiming to be a relative of the family and in need of a place to stay. The family obliges and the man comes to live with them. The man (Borgel) takes the boy (Melvin Spellbound) on a long trip and they have many unexpected adventures. Good words to use when talking about this book would be unique, interesting, funny, fantastic, goofy, unexpected, ingenious, weird, and that's just to name a few. If you like hearing about new, interesting, people, places, and things, then this is a great book for you. They encounter all sorts of amazing and intriguing people and things. Everything from giant popsicle museums , to bloboforms who own root beer float stands. This book is less of a book than an experience, one must however, enter with an open mind, because without an open mind, one is doomed to monotony, which this reading experience does not provide. It instead provides a colorful, exciting, (as much as this may sound monotonous), imaginative new perspective of things. The physics of time will be revealed, the dimensions of space will be unveiled, the very reasons for life will be explained to you in this book. Someone who wants to learn about how to plant azaleas however, should read something else. I actually found this book rather refreshing, because instead of dealing with the corruption, indecency, and everything dragging our country down a moral sewer, or people going insane from war, or how hard it is to leave home and everything you love, this book shines as a golden ray of light in a mire of depressing, monotonous, dark books. Frankly, I was getting sick for a second of all those books they make you read in school about conspirators killing people and mothers killing their sons. I was ready for something new, and this was the book for me. I think it will be the for you as well.

Borgel is a fast-paced space adventure strongly reminiscent of Douglas Adams' 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. At least five years after first reading it, I still tell the Aesops' Fable parodies as jokes (acknowledging their origin, of course :)).

This is one of Pinkwater's greatest books. I am especially fond of the fables from the Old Country ("Moral: Animals are stupid"). I have read this book twice to my son. The first time I read it to him he was three; it was his very first chapter book and he absolutely loved it. He wants Daniel Pinkwater to write another Borgel book. So do I.

I was first introduced to Daniel Pinkwater through this story between 4th and 5th grade, when my aunt who owned the book read it to me. I recently got it out of the libraray and love it even MORE than I did then, though I'll be going into highschool next year.

This is a brilliant tale of a boy (Melvin), his dog (Fafner) and someone who claims to be somehow related to the family, but is called "uncle" since they don't know quite how (Borgel). I highly recomend it to the young, and old since it is such an awesome book.

I may be getting a new pet soon... and I plan to name it Borgel, just becuase I hope it has just as hilarious of personality and such a care free disposition.

And as a warning- if a popsicle is dancing around and you can't stop being happy and feeling the effects of it... you probably shouldn't eat it :)

This is a fun, light story reccomended for children of all ages, and for parents looking for a decent laugh.
The narrator's insane foreign uncle shows up at his door (He could be Norwegian, because of his dog's name or the sort of tea he likes to drink, but he also has a vaguely Yiddish accent in the audio edition I'm familiar with, and tells stories that sound vaguely like Aesop's fables) and trains the narrator as a time tourist, a person capable of traveling through space and time, and the narrator tells of a series of madcap adventures (Think "Pinocchio","Hitchhiker's guide", or "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen") through outer space, having a dog swear at him,watching an energy being looking for planets to devour, or watching his uncle zapped into another time.
The way Pinkwater reads aloud his books, the characters all talk differently but you can still understand what they're saying.
Great fun for the whole family.

Boergel is a great book for anyone who loves wacky stories and/or science fiction. I read this aloud to two friends while we were driving from Tennessee to Maryland and they were riveted! I also highly recommend (any of his books, especially) "Alan Mendelson, the Boy from Mars", which is now available in his "5 Novels" compendium ...

Borgel is the best book I've ever read. Any kid that didn't really fit in while growing up, as I did, will appreciate Melvin's view. This book is hilarious, but not sugar coated like too many kid's books are today. Share in Melvin's wonderment and laugh at Fafner, the abrasive family dog. I've read it about twenty times now and will read it again and again.

The book Borgel is hilarious. I am 12 years old and I think it is great, yet I know a 40 year old that also loves it. I would reccomend this book to anyone that enjoys slapstick humor.

Borgel is about apretty normal boy that has adventures in space with an abnormal person named Borgel. In space, they search for a cosmic popsical with magic powers. They encounter some really weird, interesting, and funny things on their journey to find the magical popsical.

The characters in this book are very well developed, the plot is very creative and original, and it will keep practically anyone entertained.

It is hard to go wrong with this book.