Lizard Music [Hardcover]

Daniel Pinkwater (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 25, 2011 | Age Range: 9 and up

BY THE AUTHOR OF
The Big Orange Splot, The Neddiad, and 
Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl

Things Victor loves: pizza with anchovies, grape soda, B movies aired at midnight, the evening news. And with his parents off at a resort and his older sister shirking her babysitting duties, Victor has plenty of time to indulge himself and to try a few things he’s been curious about. Exploring the nearby city of Hogboro, he runs into a curious character known as the Chicken Man (a reference to his companion, an intelligent hen named Claudia who lives under his hat). The Chicken Man speaks brilliant nonsense, but he seems to be hip to the lizard musicians (real lizards, not men in lizard suits) who’ve begun appearing on Victor’s television after the broadcast of the late-late movie. Are the lizards from outer space? From “other space”? Together Victor and the Chicken Man, guided by the able Claudia, journey to the lizards’ floating island, a strange and fantastic place that operates with an inspired logic of its own.

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"No author has ever captured the great fun of being weird, growing up as a happy mutant, unfettered by convention, as well as Pinkwater has. When I was a kid, Pinkwater novels like Lizard Music...made me intensely proud to be a little off-center and weird — they taught me to woo the muse of the odd and made me the happy adult I am today.  The NYRB edition of Lizard Music is a beautiful... hardcover, a testament to Pinkwater's influence on generations of readers. It's one of those books that, in the right hands at the right time, can change your life for the better and forever."  —Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing

“Lizard Music is. . . funny, properly paranoid, shot through with bad puns and sweet absurdities, and all about a baffled kid intent on tracking reality (as slippery as lizards) in a media-spooked milieu.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Wildly imaginative. . . . This is a natural high.” —Booklist (starred review)

“A writer for smart kids. . . . Pinkwater writes for, and about, people who are not ashamed to look at life a little differently.” —Kathy Ceceri, Wired.com

“I do believe that Daniel Pinkwater is my favorite writer, living or dead.” —Cory Doctorow

“Pinkwater is the uniquest. And so are his books. Each uniquer than the last . . . A delight in oddness. A magic that's not like anyone else's.” —Neil Gaiman

About the Author

Daniel Pinkwater has written about one hundred books, many of them good. Lizard Music was almost the first one he wrote, and remains his personal favorite. It is entirely his own work, and the story that it was discovered as a manuscript inserted in a bale of banana leaves, probably to increase the weight, is merely legend, and without foundation in fact.

Product Details

• Age Range: 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: NYR Children's Collection (January 25, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590173872
• ISBN-13: 978-1590173879
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #208,090 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Play that funky music, Lizard-Boy!! June 18, 2001

By Chess Heart VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Victor's parents leave him and his sister alone for a week or two while they go off to get their heads and their relationship together. However, things really begin to get interesting when Victor's sister ALSO up and leaves to go with her friends on some sort of hippie camping trip! (yeah, the book is a bit dated...) Victor, then, is left alone to fend for himself for the next two weeks.

He's a bright kid, and perfectly happy NOT to have his crazy older sister or his doting parents around. He takes care of himself just fine, and one night over a TV dinner, he sees something verrrrry strange on the tube: a band of lizards playing music! What sort of program is THIS? he wonders-- it's not in the TV guide.

Giant lizards having an unreported jam session on late nite TV is just the beginning of the high weirdness, though. Soon he runs into a gentleman known as the Chicken Man because of his dancing chicken that lives under his hat (apparently he gives one-man/one-chicken shows on public busses and dispenses wisdom-- By Appointment Only-- from the depot). This Chicken Man character appears in the strangest of places and goes by some impossibly funny names and hints at Victor that he knows something about these lizards.

For a short time, the book turns into a sort of weird detective novel as Victor sets out to find out WHO the Chicken Man is, and WHAT are all these lizards doing?? Are they real?? How come no one else (including the manager of the TV station) knows anything about them?? Just what IS going on here??

Daniel Pinkwater is the author of a dozen books or so, many from the 1970's, of which almost all are still in print today ("The Hoboken Chicken Emergency", "Fat Men from Space", "The Big Orange Splot" and this title to name a few). Staying in print for more than 20 years is no mean feat in a world where children's authors come and go and "one hit wonders" in books are as common as popular music. I fancy the reason Mr. P. is still enjoying a good run and attracting new readers is because his books are genuinely funny and engaging. There's lots of simple humor and ridiculous situations to draw in the early/beginning reader, and his writing has a sharp wit and play-on-words that older readers will enjoy as well. Of the works he's written, "Lizard Music" is one of his best.

Readers should note, however, that like some of his other works, the plot of "Lizard Music" picks up and goes into high gear about halfway through the book. Yes, we find out a great deal more about these strange, instrument-playing lizards, but when we do, it feels like we're sprinting through the story. Some situations, while funny, seem TOO absurd, like the plot has suddenly twisted off into left field for a few paragraphs before getting back on track. It almost feels like Mr. Pinkwater was in a rush to finish and forgot to reread for clarity.

Still, this is a book geared to young readers who may not be as concerned about absurdities as older/adult readers. Indeed, they may enjoy the book all the MORE because of the strange, unexpected twists. If you are a Pinkwater fan, this is one of his better works and comes recommended. If you are new to Mr. P's works, this is an excellent choice for the intermediate reader. If you have a BEGINNING reader, I would highly recommend Mr. P's picture book, "The Big Orange Splot".

Thank you, Mr. Pinkwater! Keep up the good work!!

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars File under: life-changing kids literature January 19, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Looking back at all the books I read as a kid, I fondly recall several books which did more than tell a wonderful story...they truly made me think differently about the world around me. The L'Engle books, the Dahl books, and the Pinkwater books fall into this category. But most of all, Lizard Music. It's the book that made my kid-self reorganize his brain to accomodate a world with talking lizards and lesser kudus. It's still one of my favorite books of all time.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible and mind-bending story. November 11, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is one of those books that you read, and because of its originality, it makes a lasting impression and you never forget it. I, like many other reviewers first read this book in the third or fourth grade. Our little private Catholic school got two D.M. Pinkwater books added to the library, and everybody in my class wanted to read them. I actually wanted the other, Fat Men From Space, but it was taken, so I picked up Lizard Music. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made! This book is amazing, it's funny, fascinating, and very strange. Everything from the Chicken Man to Raymond the Lizard(s), to some island made invisible because of... refraction of light... or something. (It's been a while.) Anyway, my point is, this book has made a great and long-lasting impression on me, and if you like strange and semi-eerie things, or just great fiction... this is a MUST READ!