Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl - Hardcover

Daniel Pinkwater is crazy about writing, and has been trying to learn how to do it for fifty years. He has written about a hundred books, all but two or three of them good. People who own radios may know Daniel Pinkwater as a popular commentator and children’s book reviewer on National Public Radio. At one time, he lived in Los Angeles, went to a fancy private school with the children of movie stars, and ate in The Hat numerous times. He 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.

Gr 4-6–Big Audrey, the cat-whiskered girl who returned with Iggy, Neddie, and Seamus to their plane of existence at the end of The Yggyssey (Houghton Harcourt, 2009), takes center stage in this adventure. Wanting to see more of this plane, she sets off on a road trip across the country and ends up in Poughkeepsie, NY. Audrey mingles with the locals–a quirky cast of characters that includes a wise woman who shows her a picture of a 19th-century girl who looks exactly like her, cat-whiskers and all. Audrey is the only one convinced that she and the girl are not the same person, and solving this mystery takes her and her new friend, Molly, on another inter-dimensional adventure. Pinkwater once again exercises his trademark irreverent humor complete with puns and literary allusions. Short chapters adorned with spot art keep the story moving, and the fact that Audrey and Molly are rarely–if ever–fazed by anything that happens allows readers to breeze through this lighthearted tale that never takes itself too seriously. It is not necessary to have read the earlier titles as Audrey is the only character who makes a repeat performance. As with the first two books, the narrative rushes to a conclusion and ends somewhat abruptly with promises of future adventures. Nevertheless, it is sure to be enjoyed by fans of Pinkwater's unique talent.Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL
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