Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl

This book is fun to read, keeps your attention. Confusing at times, but very enjoyable anyhow. I didn't want it to end... I'm a new Daniel Pinkwater fan.

This book was my first introduction to Daniel Pinkwater's writing. I somehow managed to miss his previous offerings the Neddiad and the Ygyssey. I think you could best describe Adventure's of a Cat-Whiskered Girl as "odd but fun" reading. If you haven't read the first two books, it is not really that big of a deal. While the writing continues in the same vein (think Illiad and Odyssey meet Spongebob on his wierdest day), the previous books are only mentioned in a few places. The Cat-Whiskered Girl is off on an adventure of her own and not just a minor character like in the Ygyssey. Big Audrey (the main character) starts off on a quest to...well...she doesn't know where. She only knows that she is supposed to go. She gets a ride with Marlon Brando and off they go to New York. Only she never makes it. She ends up in Poughkeepsie. She works at the local UFO bookstore. Her friends include the local crazy lady (Chicken Nancy), Clarinda Quakenboss (that makes the best fritters in the Galaxy), and a half-dutch Leprechaun. Weird enough for you yet? If not, don't worry...you are in for a real treat! My 9 year old is in the process of reading this book now. He keeps coming to me giggling about the new character that just popped up in the story. He is an advanced reader for his age and it is nice to find a story that isn't dark and gloomy or filled with romance (or both..the teen section of the local bookstore is overrun with Twilight knockoffs). I highly recommend this book. I plan on getting the first two as soon as my son finishes with this one. We can't wait to read them together and compare the silliness.

This is the story of Audrey, a 14 year old girl whose face resembles that of a cat. She travels here from an alternate reality and winds up living in Poughkeepsie, in the basement of a UFO bookstore whose owners are sure she is an alien. Audrey's adventures take her to many places, alongside her two friends who have escaped from the local insane asylum. This is a laugh-out-loud funny story, and Mr Pinkwater tosses out lines that make you want to know more, but they're just throwaway funnies (example: Audrey notes that there are donuts in her version of reality, but they aren't used as food.) I love the humor because it's not heavyhanded, it's like a gentle tweak. Buy a copy of this book for the kids you know. Then buy one for yourself!

It is an absolute sheer delight to be in the imagination of Daniel Pinkwater, a man whose stories are so absurd and ridiculous yet filled with a magic that almost makes them probable. For a man who has given us a world where lizards make music, space travel is possible, and shamans point the way to extraordinary happenings, it is not hard to travel along with him in his latest romp, "Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl". A companion book to "The Neddiad" and "The Yggyssey", one does not have to be familiar with either to enjoy the strange adventures of Audrey and her dwerg friend Molly as they try to uncover who they are and who they're meant to be. The novel begins with Big Audrey traveling from Los Angeles to Poughkeepsie (with Marlon Brando nevertheless), where she winds up working in a store devoted to UFOs and extraterrestrials because the owners think she might be one. And just because she happens to have cat whiskers on her face - very nice whiskers at that. In getting to know the town, Audrey meets Professor Tag, a sometimes crazy accountant, and Molly, a mountain dwerg who can read people's minds. With Molly, Audrey meets a variety of strange characters, like Chicken Nancy, who points them in the direction they were destined to follow so that they could uncover all the mysteries surrounding the flying saucers that hover in the area on Wednesday nights and why a haunted house seems perfectly able to appear and disappear whenever it wants. As usual, Pinkwater's story is a quick paced romp through the wild and weird, a story populated by mountain trolls and other monsters, not-so-giant giants, and the possibility to travel from one plane of existence to another. While Audrey was introduced in "The Yggyssey" her true story seems to begin here, although not necessarily end. Pinkwater has peppered his work with strange literary references and quite a bit of love for his weird town of Poughkeepsie. "Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl" is a wonderfully strange and unique ride through one man's incredible imagination. I cannot wait to take another trip.

Although vaguely related to the Neddiad and Yggyssey, you don't need to read those books to appreciate this one. You *do* have to enjoy Pinkwater's particular surreal sense of humor, though. If you do, it's one of his best books, ranking right up there with The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror. And that's high praise from me! Relax, don't expect to make sense of the world, just enjoy the story and you'll love it.