Amazon.com Review
What do the children you know usually do when school is out for the summer? Go crazy with boredom? Head poolside with friends? Plan a self-sufficient civilization with its own staple food crop? That is precisely how Wesley decides to spend his summer vacation. Wesley is not an ordinary boy: "He alone in his town disliked pizza and soda, alarming his mother and the school nurse. He found professional football stupid. He'd refused to shave half his head, the hairstyle worn by all the other boys, despite his father's bribe of five dollars." It all starts (the civilization, that is) when Wesley overturns a plot of ground in his yard to see what new and unknown seeds might blow into it. Curiously, just one kind of plant grows--an unusual, flowering, fruit-bearing plant that tastes of "peach, strawberry, pumpkin pie, and flavors he had no name for." Soon, Wesley is literally reaping the fruits of his labors--using the fruit rind to make a cup for the juice he squeezes, barbecuing the root tubers, and weaving the bark into a hat to keep off the sun.
In Wesley's new world, he no longer needs a watch because he uses a flower stalk as a sundial, dividing the day into 8 segments, one for each of the flower's petals. A new language (based on an 80-letter alphabet) and counting system (based on the number 8) soon follow. Ah, Weslandia. Slowly but surely his once-tormenting classmates become curious. And soon enough, Wesley allows them to help him crush seeds for oil, which "had a tangy scent and served him both as suntan lotion and mosquito repellent." He also invents sports that are less distasteful to him than football--"games rich with strategy and complex scoring systems," and watches patiently as his classmates blunder. Wesley's parents say that he looks happy for the first time in years. And when he returns to school in September? "He had no shortage of friends." Newbery Medal winner and onetime alternate-world creator Paul Fleischman shines in this deadpan-but-hilarious picture book, and illustrator Kevin Hawkes's splendid paintings will delight young readers with the explosion of colorful, comical details. Kids young and old will love the once-outcast hero Wesley and his Robinson Crusoe-style triumphs. (Ages 8 to 11, or for reading aloud to younger children) --Karin Snelson
From Publishers Weekly
This fantastical picture book, like its hero, is bursting at the seams with creativity. Wesley's imagination sets him apart; not only does he sport purple sneakers and glasses, he thinks football is stupid and refuses to shave half his head like all the other boys. "He sticks out," says his mother. "Like a nose," bemoans his father. Ironically, a banal aside from his father gives Wesley an idea for a summer project: he establishes a new civilization in his own backyard, eventually attracting his former tormentors and befriending them. Fleischman (Joyful Noise) and Hawkes (My Little Sister Ate One Hare) offer a vigorous shot in the arm to nonconformists everywhere. A droll, deadpan text describes how Wesley prepares the soil for a seemingly magical influx of seedlings. Unable to identify the new staple crop, Wesley names it "swist," gathers food from its fruit and tubers, weaves clothing from its fibers and fashions suntan lotion and mosquito repellent from the oil of its seeds (which, in a Tom Sawyeresque business maneuver, he allows his now-curious foes to grindAand then he sells the product to them). In vibrant, puckish acrylic paintings, Hawkes captures the entrepreneurial essence of Wesley. From the makeshift shield that protects him from garbage-throwing classmates to his cluttered bedroom overflowing with inventions and science projects to the giant red-flowering jungle he cultivates, Wesley's universe clearly exists on a slightly parallel plane. Yet Hawkes introduces the outlandish elements so naturally that they seem organic. For instance, an ingenious conception of Wesley's alternative to "traditional sports" shows a lacrosse-like game with a unique scoring feature. And a subtle visual metaphor takes shape in an aerial shot of a cookie-cutter neighborhood in which Wesley's wildly fertile backyard sticks out "like a nose." It's difficult to imagine a better pairing than Fleischman and Hawkes to bring this one-of-a-kind kidAand his universeAso vividly to life. And readers will relish the tongue-in-cheek ending in which Wesley's ex-rivals conform to the nonconformist. Ages 4-9. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
