The Pepins and Their Problems

The Pepin family gets into an unfortunate number of bizarre predicaments and even less fortunate for them, they are completely unable to ever come up with an effective solution to any problem that presents itself. Fortunately for the Pepins, they have an author who can hear, with her amazing reader antenna, solutions presented by her readers to solve the Pepins' predicament problem. Whether they are trying to make cheese out of lemonade or inform their very fine neighbor, Mr. Bradshaw, that he is in love with a barber pole, the Pepins are positively paralyzed in their decision making. Lucky for them, their readers have more than enough solutions to solve their problems over and again. Now, whether they are good solutions-that's up to you to decide. This book is hilarious. And honestly, I don't know if children will get a lot of the humor, but it sure tickled my funny bone. Which makes me give it five stars on the read-aloud factor alone. But it is also zany enough that kids who don't get the humor will giggle at the silliness of, well, everything. The author's word play is phenomenal, her introspection into the writer's psyche is perfect, and her grasp on reality is loose enough to make it perfectly reasonable to believe that a penguin does, indeed, live in the garage up the street and postal workers really are out to get you (in a purely benign way). And, though I can't say for certain, I think this book will have even hesitant readers turning page after page. This book holds appeal for readers and listeners from four to thirty-four and beyond. Armchair Interviews agrees.

I knew it would happen sooner or later! I knew it! Given enough time, I was certain that if I simply continued to read books written by Polly Horvath that eventually I would hit upon one that I liked. That's a pretty snarky statement to start off a review, especially if it's a review of a book that the self-same reviewer liked. Still, I feel some background is in order. I struggled mightily through, "Everything On a Waffle". I visibly cringed with every word of "The Canning Season". Having grown up in the same town as Ms. Horvath (long live Kalamazoo!) and attended the same church as her mother (fellow children's author Betty Horvath) I've always been rooting for her to write something that didn't take the enamel off of my teeth. At long last, she's done it. She's written a book that I think everyone can enjoy. Even people, like myself, who would rather eat hot mustard raw than read yet another precious child raised by crazy aunts tale (in which she seems, usually, to be stuck). Of the Pepins, there are four. A mother who works part time doing peanut butter experiments, a father who's a corrugation expert at a cardboard factory, a son who is a genius, and a daughter who has no particular talents of which to speak. When we first meet them, the Pepins have toad problems. More precisely, toad-in-shoe problems. Here the author speaks directly to the readers of this book everywhere and asks them to send her their potential solutions to this abnormality mentally. This is sort of the form of the novel, and depending on how useful the readers' advice is, the Pepins either exacerbate their problems or alleviate them. As we follow them through a series of fun and funny occurrences (such as having a dapper man suddenly appear in their midst or when they deal with the fact that their very fine neighbor is in love with a barbershop pole) the reader has the chance to find a solution to various Pepin-related problems. Sometimes the answers are ridiculously easy (as when the family becomes trapped on their own roof) and sometimes impossible to solve (as when the cow produces lemonade rather than milk). Through it all, however, Horvath's uniquely skewed point of view enlivens a truly bizarre tale that'll have your kids screaming for a third, fourth, and possibly fifth read. Initially, the book's rather like a slightly older extension of James Marshall's classic "The Stupids" series (complete with cat and dog, no less). As you continue to read it through, however, it grows on you. It's almost a stream of consciousness. A child-friendly "Ulysees", if you will. I would like to concede here and now that it is entirely possible that I'm giving this book a lot of slack because it referenced the musical "Pippin" obliquely. I'm a sucker for any book that knows its Fosse. Through it all, Horvath throws out phrases like "dei ex machina" and makes references that will sail over children's heads only to be gratefully snatched up by their parents.

As an elementary school teacher, if I could be rewarded with the privilege of spending a day of leisure with one children's book author, I would quickly choose Polly Horvath. Her manic imagination and wit and her outrageous humor is extraordinary and charming. It would be a frolic to relish and remember--she's a total "stitch!" The Pepin family and "their very fine neighbor Mr. Bradshaw" are zany noodleheads creating and/or encountering the most improbable and hilarious experiences. Throughout the vignettes, Ms. Horvath adds flourish by cleverly engaging the the reader, as well as the characters, in asides from the commentary. It's novel and endearing. Then there is Ms. Horvath's wordsmithery. The writing contains rich vocabulary that even an adult will find compelling. (My curiosity had me going to the dictionary on a couple of occasions!) The audience may be a tad older than 4th grade as suggested in the School Library Review; the most precocious 5th and 6th grade readers will truly reap the gifts Ms. Horvath bestows. Encountering enticing words makes Ms. Horvath as writer all the more memorable. The experience of reading Polly Horvath for me has been something akin to making smores when you're camping and polishing them down with a glass of Pinot Noir!

Polly Horvath's Pepin Family is anything but a usual family group: they get stuck on their roof, searches for cheese in a cow which can only produce lemonade, hosts a 'neighbor-off' complete with dog throwers, and generally introduce a zany edge to living. Add Marilyn Hafner's fun black and white drawings and you have The Pepins And Their Problems, a fine middle grade reader kids will love.