12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sailing sailing over the bounding main, December 15, 2009
This review is from: The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis (Hardcover)
American children grow up reading so many good British novels that sometimes it's hard to conjure up similar books of a Yankee nature. Maybe that's why I like Barbara O'Connor so much. Fantasy fans are forever searching for the next great American fantasy novel, but I for one am forever on a search for the next great American realistic children's book. And certainly "The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis" probably owes more to "
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" than "
The Railway Children" when you read its plot and cadences. Small and unassuming, O'Connor appears to be honing her craft with each book she writes. This latest is simply one of her best.
Boredom comes cheap in Fayette, South Carolina. If Popeye could sell it he'd be a rich boy by now. After all, there's very little to keep him interested this summer. Living with his grandmother and his dog, life doesn't really perk up until a Holiday Rambler filled to the brim with a loud, squabbling, exciting family gets stuck in a nearby mud patch. Popeye quickly befriends Elvis, a boy about his age, and the two decide that what they need is a small adventure. It's simply perfect that such an adventure presents itself to the two when boats made out of Yoo-Hoo cartons start sailing down the nearby creek carrying cryptic messages. Who's sending them? What do they mean? And will the boys be able to solve the mystery before Elvis's Rambler is removed from the mud at last?
How do you make a book about nothing interesting? It's sort of the quandary the TV show "
Seinfeld" posed when the characters wanted to make their own television show about nothing. "Seinfeld" is about as far as you can get from "Popeye and Elvis" in terms of story and structure, but in both cases they deal with the everyday mundane aspects of our lives. The trick is to stay true to the material and yet still have enough story and character development to make it fun. Maybe Barbara O'Connor has this hidden burning need to write about space monsters and shiny vampires, but somehow I doubt it. At some point in her life she realized that she had a gift. She makes ordinary folks heroes in very human ways.
Ms. O'Connor has other gifts as well, mind you. For example, she is an exemplary example of economy in writing. I've always sort of believed that the less words you use, while still staying on point, the better writer you are (which makes these gigantic reviews I write all the more ironic, I guess). If you look at easy readers you realize that folks like Dr. Seuss and Arnold Lobel had a gift. Early chapter books are just as hard, in some ways. You can't spend pages and pages talking about motivation. Character and personality has to be shown, not told. Here's a brilliant example, with three characters introduced at once, with not a single word out of place:
"Popeye needed Velma to not crack up because no one else in his family was very good at taking care of things. Not his father, who lived up in Chattanooga and sold smoke-damaged rugs out of the back of a pickup truck. Not his mother, who came and went but never told anybody where she came from or where she went to. And definitely not his uncle Dooley, who lived in a rusty trailer in the backyard and sometimes worked at the meatpacking plant and sometimes sold aluminum siding and sometimes watched TV all day."
She's the Bailey White of children's literature. She has a distinctive voice, which is so hard to find sometimes. Read enough children's books and they all start to run together in your brain. Not O'Connor. Whether she's defining the term avuncular, describing the interior of the Holiday Rambler ("Beside the booth was a tiny television, strapped to the wall with a bungee cord") or just adding in little human moments ("Elvis punched him in the arm with a knuckle") she just seems to know how to pick and choose her words. When I grow up, I want to write just like Barbara O'Connor.
Which brings me to yet another trademark O'Connorism: class. Her characters are people with real jobs who get by and don't have the option of just leaving all their troubles behind. Popeye lives with his grandmother and they make do, but it's in a pretty remote area. The kind of place where a stuck RV is going to be the biggest news going on in a long time. Previous O'Connor novels had similar characters and situations. "
How to Steal a Dog" (one of my favorites) examined homelessness and, to a certain extent, how bad situations cause good people to make bad choices. "
Greetings from Nowhere" (a big hit with the kids' bookgroup I run) involved motels and the people who both visit and run them. There's something nice about reading a Barbara O'Connor book and knowing that you're not going to have to deal with stereotypical tropes like "if this character lives in a trailer park, you know they're evil" and the like. Her folks don't have a lot of money. Neither do a lot of folks in the country right now. Makes sense.
Problems with this book? Dunno. I'm usually pretty good at coming up with some kind of an objection to any given title. But maybe too much time has passed between my reading this and my reviewing it. When I look at this book now I sort of view it through the blur of deep affection. It's got great lines like "Dead dogs live here", great characters portrayed with just the right amount of words, and a plot that's interesting in a small, simple way. It's funny not to find something to compare this to, but "The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis" really is its own unique little beast. An early chapter book that just works. I hope it gets the attention it deserves.
Ages 7-11
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written, engaging story, September 28, 2011
In a refreshing departure from fantasy novels, The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis engaged my 8-year-old son as well as any Harry Potter novel has done in the last couple of years. While he is capable of reading it himself, I still read to him every night at bed time, and I found this book to be perfectly cadenced for reading out loud. The style, imagery, character development, and plot were all pitch-perfect. Strongly recommend for literature- and adventure-lovers alike.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adventure awaits around the bend, February 1, 2011
Age 7-11.
Popeye lives in small-town Fayette, South Carolina with his quirky grandmother, Velma, who he fears is "cracking up", his "lazy bum moocher" uncle, Dooley, and his faithful dog, Boo. The unrelenting rain has kept him cooped up with nothing to do but watch the water stain on his bedroom ceiling grow, listen to Velma "exercise her brain" by reciting the kings and queens of England in order, and listen to Dooley snore on the living room couch. Finally able to go outside, Popeye discovers a sparkling motor home stuck in the mud along the road near his house. The Holiday Rambler is home to Elvis Jewell, a boy his age, and his family. Popeye is fascinated with the way this big, rambunctious family lives and with the kids' Spit and Swear Club. The two quickly become friends and a small adventure awaits them when they spot tiny boats, made from Yoo-hoo chocolate drink boxes, floating down the creek with mysterious messages folded inside them. Will they find out what the messages mean and who sent them down the creek before the Holiday Rambler is set free and Elvis must leave?
This is a humorous, fast-paced story that will capture and hold the attention of elementary school children, especially boys. Barbara O'Connor did an excellent job of creating fascinating characters that are relatable to children and depicting these characters in a manner so vivid they will come to life in their minds. I enjoyed her use of southern dialect which is often full of colorful words and expressions passed down from generation to generation. This would be a great book to read aloud to elementary school students and easy for upper elementary school students to read independently since the more difficult words (and definitions) have been incorporated into the storyline. This is a delightful story that will have students laughing out loud.
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