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Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars
Leonard's life at his new junior high is just barely tolerable until he becomes friends with the unusual Alan and with him shares an extraordinary adventure.
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First published May 8, 1979
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About the author
Daniel Pinkwater
138Ìýbooks402ÌýfollowersDaniel Manus Pinkwater is an author of mostly children's books and is an occasional commentator on National Public Radio. He attended Bard College. Well-known books include Lizard Music, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Fat Men from Space, Borgel, and the picture book The Big Orange Splot. Pinkwater has also illustrated many of his books in the past, although for more recent works that task has passed to his wife Jill Pinkwater.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
April 25, 2008
This is one of those books that you read as a kid and the scenes get stuck in your head for the rest of your life and you don't remember where they're from - did I dream about Hergeschleimer's Oriental Gardens? Did I actually study the art of mind control? - and then you reread it 15 or 20 years later and realize that all of your cool childhood 'memories' were just planted in your brain by this giant bald guy. Thanks, Pinkwater.
January 11, 2011
From this book I learned that if you smoke a cigar, you should chew bubblegum at the same time so you don't get sick. I have never tried this, because cigars are utterly disgusting, but the two times I've had one I had no access to gum and both times ended up feeling nauseated afterward so probably Pinkwater was right, just like he was right about the lizards and the fat men from space and the avocados.
May 30, 2018
This book saved my life as a child. Pinkwater's protagonists are geeky social outcasts who discover wild creative worlds that allow them to prevail. This story is so memorable. Easily my favorite childhood book.
Read it again in 2018. Still amazing!
Read it again in 2018. Still amazing!
March 20, 2019
This is one of those frustrating books that has interesting bits sprinkled through a not so interesting bulk. Just enough that each time I thought I would quit some clever detail or promising plot development would keep me reading. After the halfway point, I started skipping all the long infomonologues by Klugarsh and then Clarence. They seemed largely repetitive, and as far as I could tell at the end I missed nothing by not reading them. In terms of where the book ended up, I don't know why so much space was devoted to those sections or to the time at school. Maybe the author changed his mind about what kind of book it was and didn't rewrite. I can see why this isn't one of the Pinkwaters that remained in circulation.
December 13, 2024
latest re-read 3/4/2012
My freshman year in HS (1986/1987) I read several books by DMP... this was my favorite.
I remember, in college, volunteering at the local library to read this book to the 8-10 year olds. I started with 5 kids. In the two weeks set aside for me to finish this book my class grew to over 20 kids (and most of their parents) each night and the local bookstore told me they had to order 50+ copies for special orders and now they keep at least 2 copies in stock at all times.
Great book.
My freshman year in HS (1986/1987) I read several books by DMP... this was my favorite.
I remember, in college, volunteering at the local library to read this book to the 8-10 year olds. I started with 5 kids. In the two weeks set aside for me to finish this book my class grew to over 20 kids (and most of their parents) each night and the local bookstore told me they had to order 50+ copies for special orders and now they keep at least 2 copies in stock at all times.
Great book.
September 11, 2016
Is Alan from Mars? Can you make Omega Waves? Why is Leonard Neeble allowed to smoke cigars? Who are those time-traveling bikers, and why are they addicted to chili? Pinkwater is the imagination you fantasize you have. All of his novels should be read repeatedly.
September 11, 2023
This is one of my all-time favorite books, and one of Pinkwater's best (and that's saying something, in my opinion!). Images from this book will be forever burned in my mind, like their school's notebook system, the cigar-smoking, and the various ways to trip people. This book is just simply fantastic, a joyous, strange, wonderful book.
2023: Read it aloud to the kids. Such a weird book! I realized early on that I was wrong: this isn't the one with the notebook system. I'm thinking that's The Snarkout Boys? I'll have to reread that one and see! But I love, love, love Leonard's triumphant return to school after Alan leaves.
2023: Read it aloud to the kids. Such a weird book! I realized early on that I was wrong: this isn't the one with the notebook system. I'm thinking that's The Snarkout Boys? I'll have to reread that one and see! But I love, love, love Leonard's triumphant return to school after Alan leaves.
February 25, 2025
Counterculture for kids! A pair of middle school weirdos navigate a world of stupid adults and tools-of-the-system teachers, looking for used book stores as well as places to read comic books and smoke cigars. They make the acquaintance of some nutty new age goofballs and ufo nuts who offer to teach them the secrets of mind control and trans dimensional travel, only for the secrets to be real (but actually kind of boring). Laugh out loud funny and much better written than most modern juvenile fare. I’ve been a huge fan of the author since I was the age of his characters and have reread several of his books multiple times as an adult. They’re always funny, smart, and surprisingly zen. Still pondering the transcendental state of laying back and giving up.
February 11, 2011
This was the first Pinkwater book I ever read, at one of my sons urging. I loved when I first read it, and rereading it I was impressed by the way Pinkwater throws together cliched genre elements like mysterious bookstore owners and ancient secrets with genuine childhood sorrows, in this case moving to a new school. This is a classic.
September 6, 2018
there are many things to love about alan mendelsohn, the boy from mars, which has all your trademark pinkwater eccentricities but also a more cohesive plot structure than some of his other books. but i'd like to take this chance to record just how much i love pinkwater's descriptions of food experiences in particular:
Dr. Prince scooped up big spoonful of the [Green Death chili]. At first, after he had popped it into his mouth, he had a sort of musing expression; then he looked pleased; then he looked surprised; then he got very red; then he grabbed handfuls of saltines and stuffed them into his mouth - by this time he was sweating freely - then he ran to the stainless steel water dispenser and gulped three glasses of water. When he came back to the table, tears were streaming down his face. He loosened his collar and sat down. "Without a doubt, the best chili I've ever tasted," he said to Samuel Klugarsh.
Dr. Prince scooped up big spoonful of the [Green Death chili]. At first, after he had popped it into his mouth, he had a sort of musing expression; then he looked pleased; then he looked surprised; then he got very red; then he grabbed handfuls of saltines and stuffed them into his mouth - by this time he was sweating freely - then he ran to the stainless steel water dispenser and gulped three glasses of water. When he came back to the table, tears were streaming down his face. He loosened his collar and sat down. "Without a doubt, the best chili I've ever tasted," he said to Samuel Klugarsh.
August 10, 2024
I read this with my daughter, we were looking for something silly after really enjoying the Wayside School series by Louis Sachar, and I found this recommended in a few places.
It was a bit of a mixed bag. There are some really inventive ideas, some fun characters, and certainly a handful of memorable sequences. However there are also stretches that are a bit uneventful, some confusing and repetitive concepts, and it's a bit of a product of its time with things like tobacco references (the pre-teen protagonist takes up smoking cigars at one point to calm his nerves).
Had some fun with it, but not something I would recommend or revisit, personally. I can see why this is something that would have stuck with people that read it at a young age years ago though.
It was a bit of a mixed bag. There are some really inventive ideas, some fun characters, and certainly a handful of memorable sequences. However there are also stretches that are a bit uneventful, some confusing and repetitive concepts, and it's a bit of a product of its time with things like tobacco references (the pre-teen protagonist takes up smoking cigars at one point to calm his nerves).
Had some fun with it, but not something I would recommend or revisit, personally. I can see why this is something that would have stuck with people that read it at a young age years ago though.
March 25, 2020
Pinkwater is one of the all-time greats of American literature. A total original. The only writer I can compare him with is Vonnegut, and Pinkwater is way better. This is one of his best.
February 10, 2023
One of my favorite books from childhood, I remember its fresh plastic jacket glinting at me in the new books spinner at my elementary school library. I had already discovered the great Daniel Manus Pinkwater from his work with fat men in plaid sportcoats munching their way through the burgers of earth, the appearance of a giant chicken in New Jersey, and the lizard music of late night television. But this was, to me his masterpiece.
A great gleaming smorgasbord of weirdness and nerdish power fantasies. One learns the best way to chew bubblegum and smoke cigars (comcurrently); the best way to eat chili (hot and green); and the best drink for a genius (very dark hot chocolate with fresh marshmallows). Toss in perfect corn muffins and you have the basis for what I know will be a very successful food truck. One also learns (as if one hadn't already learned this by 11) that old bookstores are cool, old and messy bookstores are cooler, and the weirdo guys who inhabit them are helpful eccentrics. Throw in a panoply of references to space travel, time travel, astral planar travel, lost continents, mind control, telekinesis, codes and ciphers, Venusians and Martians, and other quasi-nonsense, and you have an amazing ride.
Pinkwater's kids inhabit interesting worlds; there is a term in SF criticism, 'wainscot worlds', that may apply here. Under a dull surface of tedious activities such as school, dental appointments, gym classes, and dealing with horrible people, there is another just-as-real world of wonders that is not known to most. You have to be 'tuned in' to the right channels, whether through a lucky dental filling, attention to late night end-of-day programming, or possess a certain ability to reach a state of being that allows you access to the cool stuff.
The adults in Alan Mendelsohn are either well-meaning but dull, or eccentric and cool. Far better than the notion in so much media that adults are either vicious or dopey, and have little to offer the child. Some of the eccentrics have a huckster quality; some are enthusiastic but wrongheaded; and others are pure pranksters. But they help kick-start the journey that the kids make, more or less, on their own.
Of course these jaunts have their end, and often there is a sad moment of saying goodbye, but usually there is a suggestion that the adventure isn't really over...probably. And usually there are subtle changes for the better that take place even after the mundane takes precedence again. So too with this novel, and all of Pinkwater's books. It is hard to say goodbye, but the chili tastes much better than before.
A great gleaming smorgasbord of weirdness and nerdish power fantasies. One learns the best way to chew bubblegum and smoke cigars (comcurrently); the best way to eat chili (hot and green); and the best drink for a genius (very dark hot chocolate with fresh marshmallows). Toss in perfect corn muffins and you have the basis for what I know will be a very successful food truck. One also learns (as if one hadn't already learned this by 11) that old bookstores are cool, old and messy bookstores are cooler, and the weirdo guys who inhabit them are helpful eccentrics. Throw in a panoply of references to space travel, time travel, astral planar travel, lost continents, mind control, telekinesis, codes and ciphers, Venusians and Martians, and other quasi-nonsense, and you have an amazing ride.
Pinkwater's kids inhabit interesting worlds; there is a term in SF criticism, 'wainscot worlds', that may apply here. Under a dull surface of tedious activities such as school, dental appointments, gym classes, and dealing with horrible people, there is another just-as-real world of wonders that is not known to most. You have to be 'tuned in' to the right channels, whether through a lucky dental filling, attention to late night end-of-day programming, or possess a certain ability to reach a state of being that allows you access to the cool stuff.
The adults in Alan Mendelsohn are either well-meaning but dull, or eccentric and cool. Far better than the notion in so much media that adults are either vicious or dopey, and have little to offer the child. Some of the eccentrics have a huckster quality; some are enthusiastic but wrongheaded; and others are pure pranksters. But they help kick-start the journey that the kids make, more or less, on their own.
Of course these jaunts have their end, and often there is a sad moment of saying goodbye, but usually there is a suggestion that the adventure isn't really over...probably. And usually there are subtle changes for the better that take place even after the mundane takes precedence again. So too with this novel, and all of Pinkwater's books. It is hard to say goodbye, but the chili tastes much better than before.
August 25, 2017
Picture this as "A Wrinkle in Time," but bizarre: instead of the high-minded prog-rock fusion of science, culture, religion and philosophy, this one trucks in B-movie silliness, Borscht Belt humor, Dada surrealism and Tri-State-Area pride. Pinkwater writes like a demented Catcher in the Rye, and his young adult novels were like crack to me in elementary and middle school.
The best part? They hold up! Daniel Pinkwater does not suck when you take the nostalgia goggles off. In fact, hey may be better in some ways- kids just enjoy the freewheeling surrealist adventures, with mind control, teleportation, Venusian motorcyclists and the like, but as an adult you can recognize both the tropes and references Pinkwater riffs on, but the obvious world-building and hometown pride in his run-down cities, ethnic neighborhoods and hole-in-the-wall diners.
The best part? They hold up! Daniel Pinkwater does not suck when you take the nostalgia goggles off. In fact, hey may be better in some ways- kids just enjoy the freewheeling surrealist adventures, with mind control, teleportation, Venusian motorcyclists and the like, but as an adult you can recognize both the tropes and references Pinkwater riffs on, but the obvious world-building and hometown pride in his run-down cities, ethnic neighborhoods and hole-in-the-wall diners.
April 1, 2010
This was a very odd book about a somewhat geeky twelve year old Leonard Neeble and his experiences with his eccentric best friend Alan Mendelsohn, who, among other things, claims to hail from Mars. After moving to a new town, Leonard is bored to tears until he meets Alan Mendelsohn, the only person who seems interesting at his junior high school. They quickly become friends and together explore mind control methods, buying books and instruments from a somewhat suspect storekeeper named Samuel Klugarsh. Along the way, they will travel to other worlds and meet beings from Venus. This book took a little while to get into, but eventually got pretty entertaining. There were, however, many moments where I just went "wait...what?".
April 15, 2022
I know it's technically for middle schoolers. In my defense I WAS in late elementary school the first time I read this book. It remains one of my favorite books of all time. I don't care how old you are...read it if you love offbeat humor with a subversive undercurrent.
Read
July 10, 2022This was maybe the third time I've read Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars. Maybe the fourth. It's a comfort read for me, and a book that consistently floats around in my head, popping into my memory at odd times. I consider that a plus. This book came out in 1979, when I was ten. It's about two twelve-year-old boys who are too smart to feel like they fit in at their middle school. I never read the book until I was almost thirty, which is too bad, in a way. Had I read it when I was twelve, I would have gone wild for it. I still go wild for it.
The book is told from the perspective of Leonard Neeble, who's new to Bat Masterson Middle School, located in a suburb of the fictional city of Hogboro, which is Daniel Pinkwater's thin disguise of Chicago. Alan Mendelsohn is new to the school, too, and they're both bored and miserable until they find each other.
It's an adventure story. There are several adventures going on in it. One is about how to cope with the crushing boredom of a school that doesn't live up to your hopes and needs (or, by extension, any situation like that). Another is the boys' discovering the fun of hopping on the bus to the city and exploring the joys of small, eccentric bookstores. Small, eccentric bookstores now count as a nostalgia trip, I guess. There were plenty of them around when I moved to New York City in 1996, but they have all but vanished. Regardless, a story like this could be written just as easily today, since the point of it is that when the world isn't giving you what you want--and you can't really count on the world to do that--you can make your own fun. And making that fun is much easier when you have a friend.
The boys discover occult bookstores which promise courses on mind control, lost civilizations, and interdimensional travel and communication. They meet up with people who promise they can guide them in the study of such things. Having turned twelve in 1981, I remember all that trippy New Agey stuff being all over popular culture at the time. I was a big In Search Of... fan, and used to wonder about things like telekinesis, crop circles, lost civilizations, the Bermuda Triangle, and parallel realities. I still think about a lot of that stuff, though I'm a bit more of a skeptic than I used to be. Regardless, it makes great stories.
One consistent element of Pinkwater's young adult books is that adults aren't bad or evil, but are largely sure of themselves and even more largely don't have any more of an idea what they're doing than kids do. I'm not sure if this message really sank in when I read my first Pinkwater young adult novel, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, but it's really apparent to me now--perhaps because now I'm an adult, and a parent, and even when I'm sure about I largely don't know what I'm doing. As an adult writer, Pinkwater let the secret out that adults and other authority figures are also just whistling in the dark, so you'd best learn to make your own way in the world. And it's a lot more fun when you take charge of your own destiny, anyway.
The book is told from the perspective of Leonard Neeble, who's new to Bat Masterson Middle School, located in a suburb of the fictional city of Hogboro, which is Daniel Pinkwater's thin disguise of Chicago. Alan Mendelsohn is new to the school, too, and they're both bored and miserable until they find each other.
It's an adventure story. There are several adventures going on in it. One is about how to cope with the crushing boredom of a school that doesn't live up to your hopes and needs (or, by extension, any situation like that). Another is the boys' discovering the fun of hopping on the bus to the city and exploring the joys of small, eccentric bookstores. Small, eccentric bookstores now count as a nostalgia trip, I guess. There were plenty of them around when I moved to New York City in 1996, but they have all but vanished. Regardless, a story like this could be written just as easily today, since the point of it is that when the world isn't giving you what you want--and you can't really count on the world to do that--you can make your own fun. And making that fun is much easier when you have a friend.
The boys discover occult bookstores which promise courses on mind control, lost civilizations, and interdimensional travel and communication. They meet up with people who promise they can guide them in the study of such things. Having turned twelve in 1981, I remember all that trippy New Agey stuff being all over popular culture at the time. I was a big In Search Of... fan, and used to wonder about things like telekinesis, crop circles, lost civilizations, the Bermuda Triangle, and parallel realities. I still think about a lot of that stuff, though I'm a bit more of a skeptic than I used to be. Regardless, it makes great stories.
One consistent element of Pinkwater's young adult books is that adults aren't bad or evil, but are largely sure of themselves and even more largely don't have any more of an idea what they're doing than kids do. I'm not sure if this message really sank in when I read my first Pinkwater young adult novel, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, but it's really apparent to me now--perhaps because now I'm an adult, and a parent, and even when I'm sure about I largely don't know what I'm doing. As an adult writer, Pinkwater let the secret out that adults and other authority figures are also just whistling in the dark, so you'd best learn to make your own way in the world. And it's a lot more fun when you take charge of your own destiny, anyway.
July 17, 2023
This was a story I wanted to like more than I did.
One certainly can't fault Mr Pinkwater for a lack of creativity here. Strange and unusual ideas come fast and furious, from every direction, almost from the get-go. These ideas aren't all equally wonderful, but they certainly kept me tuned in. My problem is that the ideas completely overshadowed the story itself. Not just certain ideas but the sheer volume of them. After a while, I was no longer interested in the situation or plot per se. I didn't care much about the two friends, and their travails. It was just "let's see what the author is gonna drop in next". I will state that the ideas were enough to carry my to the end - and they literally don't stop until the last word. But I missed connecting with anything. Occasionally, Leonard would talk about something a bit more mundane - like when he was explaining his past experience with corn muffins - and my brain would start identifying. But then it would shift back to interspatial theory and motorcyclist folk singers from other dimensions, and I no longer felt that connection. I almost would've preferred somebody explaining the idea of the book to me than actually reading the thing. "OK, so, imagine these kids then go off to place that serves corn muffins..."
At some point, Leonard says to Alan "Anything to make this adventure more interesting." Somehow, that's both exactly what the book needed...and the last thing it needed.
One certainly can't fault Mr Pinkwater for a lack of creativity here. Strange and unusual ideas come fast and furious, from every direction, almost from the get-go. These ideas aren't all equally wonderful, but they certainly kept me tuned in. My problem is that the ideas completely overshadowed the story itself. Not just certain ideas but the sheer volume of them. After a while, I was no longer interested in the situation or plot per se. I didn't care much about the two friends, and their travails. It was just "let's see what the author is gonna drop in next". I will state that the ideas were enough to carry my to the end - and they literally don't stop until the last word. But I missed connecting with anything. Occasionally, Leonard would talk about something a bit more mundane - like when he was explaining his past experience with corn muffins - and my brain would start identifying. But then it would shift back to interspatial theory and motorcyclist folk singers from other dimensions, and I no longer felt that connection. I almost would've preferred somebody explaining the idea of the book to me than actually reading the thing. "OK, so, imagine these kids then go off to place that serves corn muffins..."
At some point, Leonard says to Alan "Anything to make this adventure more interesting." Somehow, that's both exactly what the book needed...and the last thing it needed.
December 12, 2020
And madness ensued from the greatest storyteller on the planet. We have a couple of portly, chubby, oddballs from Chicago, one of who might be a martian. They are outsiders who don't fit in and don't think like everyone else. So pretty much a Pinkwater book.
When not in Jr. High our heroes are in therapy, smoking cigars, discovering mind control and hyper-stellar archaeology, exploring places like waka-waka, investigating Atlantis, Lemuria and of course eating the green death chili from the Bermuda triangle chili parlor.
If you've read Pinkwater than my description makes total sense and you are probably already a fan.
Pinkwater is either someone you get (which means you're one of "us") or someone you don't get (don't worry there are lots of James Patterson books to read for people like you).
Of course he's my favorite writer. I've read over 100 of his books and loved each and every one of them and this one was no different, highly recommended.
When not in Jr. High our heroes are in therapy, smoking cigars, discovering mind control and hyper-stellar archaeology, exploring places like waka-waka, investigating Atlantis, Lemuria and of course eating the green death chili from the Bermuda triangle chili parlor.
If you've read Pinkwater than my description makes total sense and you are probably already a fan.
Pinkwater is either someone you get (which means you're one of "us") or someone you don't get (don't worry there are lots of James Patterson books to read for people like you).
Of course he's my favorite writer. I've read over 100 of his books and loved each and every one of them and this one was no different, highly recommended.
September 29, 2024
I picked it up because of the phrase "Boy from Mars" expecting a classic juvenile scifi adventure. It wasn't. Written from First Person Perspective of 'Leonard Neeble' a bratty middle school kid who has migrated to a new Neighborhood and doesn't get along with anyone. His parents are stupid, his classmates in the new school are dumb, his teachers are also...
Enter one Alan Mendelsohn, who starts a riot at school by telling all students in person that he is from MARS. And the bus riding adventures begin.
Kookiest book if I ever read one. 4 stars just for its complete uniqueness and writing style. The book was constantly throwing curve pitches at me. And I was thoroughly amused. At the start I thought the characters were boring, I was wrong, their 'boringness' was wielded is such way that the reading experience was elevated into pure entertainment.
Enter one Alan Mendelsohn, who starts a riot at school by telling all students in person that he is from MARS. And the bus riding adventures begin.
Kookiest book if I ever read one. 4 stars just for its complete uniqueness and writing style. The book was constantly throwing curve pitches at me. And I was thoroughly amused. At the start I thought the characters were boring, I was wrong, their 'boringness' was wielded is such way that the reading experience was elevated into pure entertainment.
January 8, 2023
If I had to pick one novel that had the biggest impact on my life while growing up it's this one. Nothing else even comes close. The crazy characters, super creative story (Missle whistle, mind control, sparking chilli, Clarence Yojimbo's coded Japanese English dictionary, Fleegix, alternate planes of existence... I could go on).
Daniel Pinkwater is a genius at creating wildly interesting and compelling worlds for kids. I read this book every year between 7th and 12th grade (and submitted a new book report each time) and I have read it multiple times as an adult. Highly recommended for kids (or adults who don't take life too seriously). Don't let the lame book cover dissuade you. The original is far superior.
Daniel Pinkwater is a genius at creating wildly interesting and compelling worlds for kids. I read this book every year between 7th and 12th grade (and submitted a new book report each time) and I have read it multiple times as an adult. Highly recommended for kids (or adults who don't take life too seriously). Don't let the lame book cover dissuade you. The original is far superior.
April 20, 2020
This is a story about a twelve year old boy named Leonard and his best friend, Alan, who claims to be from mars. These two start to explore mind control with the help of the bookstore clerk. They learn about alternate parallel universes and the societies that live in each of them. The plot of this book was confusing at times because it was unclear what was happening. I had to reread several parts to be clear on what was happening. The dialogue between the characters helped to tell the story and created interesting dynamics. However the vocabulary and language was repetitive and dull. Many times things were overly explained when they could have been inferred by the reader.
June 20, 2019
This book is a good mix of funny and ... wheeeeeel, weird. Weird is good!!
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun read.
BUT. BUT BUT BUT. There are no strong girl characters. Like, whaaa? Seriously Pinkwater, come on. I'm also reading The Spies of Spiegel (by Daniel Pinkwater) and there are, like, a total of ZERO girls in that. COME ON.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun read.
BUT. BUT BUT BUT. There are no strong girl characters. Like, whaaa? Seriously Pinkwater, come on. I'm also reading The Spies of Spiegel (by Daniel Pinkwater) and there are, like, a total of ZERO girls in that. COME ON.
November 18, 2020
This book started off interesting not really knowing where it would go, then a boy came into the story and made it allot more interesting. However I still found this book a bit boring and hard to read at times, the author could have done so much more with the story but settled with the ending and book how it is. It was an interesting read but took an immense amount of time due to the absolute boringness. I rate this book a 3/5 since there was an decent plot and story line, however it was not a page turner which brought down from a 5 star.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2019
Slow-going, but fun if you like intelligent, creative, nonconformist and self-reliant protagonists. Defined character-building in lieu of real suspense, and enough wackiness to make this my first choice among my concurrent reads. The magic is strong in this one.
October 1, 2017
Rated 5 for how much I enjoyed this book when I was in grade 5. Holds up well on re-read now, definitely sharing with the kids.
October 22, 2017
Definitely a children's story. Has some similarities to Alice in Wonderland, in that there isn't much logic to it. Wouldn't recommend this book to any teenager or older.
November 17, 2017
Not my favorite Pinkwater ever, but still an entertaining and funny read.
December 9, 2018
Funny and moving story of a boy who doesn't quite fit in at his new junior high. But when Leonard meets Alan Mendelsohn, life starts to look up.
February 20, 2019
Somehow my childhood friends never held up when compared to Alan Mendelsohn. Another great Pinkwater creation.
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