Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up

I read this book over the course of several flights while traveling and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a cartoonist who likes cupcakes and wearing superhero t-shirts, there should be no surprise why the book peaked my interest. But I was delighted to find that the book was neither an unstructured permission slip for irresponsible behavior, nor a "Harrumphing Codger" treatise on abolishing all forms of fun from life. Rather, it was a well-organized, even-handed, thoughtful and interesting approach on the phenomenon itself. I enjoyed the historical research, and although sometimes overly thourough, offered a lot of interesting background for the rest of the book. I also enjoyed the profiles of the people throughout the book. At times I found myself mentally cheering them on, while with others, I tended to react to with frustration (and sometimes even disgust). So ultimately, the book connected with me on an emotional level, and it made me think. Something all good books do.

Rejuvenile is my new favorite book--smart, funny, wonderfully written. Noxon's forte is finding amazingly quirky people who illustrate his thesis and describing them in delicious detail. The last section, "Into a Rejuvenile Future," ties it all together. "[W]e rejuveniles are attempting to hang on to the part of ourselves that feels most genuinely human," Noxon writes, and we can't help but celebrate our own inner senses of wonder and curiosity and the delightful and thought provoking journey this writer takes us on.

Lime Popsicles were my favorite as a child and now I find I am not alone in my indulgence of such childhood delights as an adult. Rejuvenile is a book that allows us to evaluate our own inner child and desire to recapture childhood along many avenues. Some people have organized activities such as tag and dodgeball. Some express their child through collecting tangible items such as toys. As adults they allow themselves to enjoy Disneyland as much as the children they come with. This is a fun, joyful book-one that I looked forward to reading at the end of a hectic workday.

When I purchased my new Nikon D2X, a pro level camera, I couldn't wait to get it home and try it out. I went to Central Park even though the weather conditions were crappy for photography. That level of pleasure and enjoyment was the same if not greater than getting that new set of legos when I was ten for my birthday. I'm a rejuvenile. If you've watched the cartoon network with or without children present and enjoyed it then you are one too. Christopher Noxon documents a trend in adults that is much wider spread than you might think. In delightfully well written prose, Noxon documents the various types of rejuvenile and their various activities. You have adults who participate in kickball (the author is one of them and met his wife through that activity), still watch cartoons, collect and . . . yes . . . even play with action figures, read comic books or graphic novels and other such activities shared by ten year olds. Then there are the 32 year old children who move back with their parents, women who diligently collect the very pricey Madame Alexander dolls and other perhaps less obvious examples of rejuvenilia. Noxon ponders on the both the positive and negative aspects of this sociological trend. Clearly he believes it is overall positive and lambasts the critics. There is obviously a spectrum of rejuvenileness and the more extreme certainly gave me reason to pause (the adults playing with action figures and even more outré examples.) It seems to be impacting all levels of society - how adults raise and relate to their children, how those children are maturing and the various industries fed by these trends thus it isn't all fun and games. The book is a very interesting read that I highly recommend it.

"In Rejuvenile, Christopher Noxon identifies a profound change in what it means to be an adult in the 21st century. He does so with remarkable clarity, gentle humor, exhaustive research, and deep revelations into the transformational power of play. Noxon offers up the hope that some of us, at least, will be able to create a new model of maturity: more functional, and definitely more fun. "