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Summary
Summary
Horvath invites readers to guide the plight of a problem-prone family
Whether it's waking up to find toads in their shoes, becoming trapped on the roof, or searching for cheese when their cow makes only lemonade, the Pepin family always seem to get into the most bizarre scrapes. Lucky for them, they have an author with large psychic antennae and great problem-solving readers who can join the Pepins on their hilarious adventures. And they need all the help they can get!
In this joyfully absurd romp Polly Horvath is in top comedic form, and Marylin Hafner's pictures add to the fun.
Author Notes
Polly Horvath is the author of seven previous books for children, including one for older readers, The Canning Season, which won the National Book Award. She lives in Metchosin, British Columbia
Marylin Hafner has illustrated numerous children's books. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Following her National Book Award-winning dark comedy The Canning Season, Horvath reprises the unalloyed giddiness of Everything on a Waffle-and ups the ante with some outrageous, Pirandello-like flourishes. Seemingly dire problems forever loom over the Pepin family: toads lurk in their shoes, or their hot chocolate has grown too cold to drink. Their addled responses (nobody would ever think of simply reheating the chocolate) group them with the beloved fools of Harry Allard and James Marshall's Stupids books and of Chelm tales. The difference is that Horvath impishly colludes with the audience. She inserts "the author" as a character, too, a great psychic who can receive suggestions from readers: "If you put one finger on each temple and concentrate, she will be able to hear your solution and share it with the Pepins and other readers." The narrative folds in ideas from "readers" (these are invariably as ridiculous as the Pepins' own). "Wait! Yes, my antennae quiver," writes Horvath during the hot-chocolate conundrum. "One dear reader from Brookline, Massachusetts, thinks that all the Pepins need to do is find a very successful writer and have him or her blow some hot air on the cold chocolate" (the Pepins dismiss the notion, because of "all those germs"). If the end seems a bit abrupt, no matter: the sly running jokes about place names and brazenly funny developments keep the conceit and the comedy energetic all the way to the finish line. Ages 8-12. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Light domestic fiction gets a postmodern twist: inviting readers into psychic collaboration (""If you put one finger on each temple and concentrate...Wait! I hear readers!""), Horvath spins deliciously silly stories about a family rivaling Hale's Peterkins for foolishness and Cresswell's Bagthorpes for effervescent wit. For example: when their ladder is knocked down, the four Pepins plus dog, cat, and ""very fine neighbor Mr. Bradshaw"" are stranded on the roof. Soliciting readers' solutions to the problem, the author is soon ""positively aswamp and cannot mention them all,"" citing only the most outlandish. Meanwhile, neighbors propose potentially disastrous bungee jumping and firefighters set up a net. The ladder, still lying in the yard, is a reluctant last resort. Horvath's authorial voice is like a tart great aunt's, irrepressible gleam in slyly winking eye: ""Please be quiet, all of you; I am trying to write,"" she pleads, or disappears altogether for three pages mid-book (""Your author wanted to...cut herself another piece of spice cake with chocolate frosting""). Each preposterous event holds fresh surprise, whether it's the problem of Mr. Bradshaw falling in love with a barber pole (he needs glasses) or that of finding Mrs. Pepin ""something in need of ruling"" (she chooses to be queen of a local garage -- an easy commute). Hafner's line drawings visualize the shenanigans with comic amiability. Here's one reader beaming thoughts to both author and illustrator: Thanks for the laughs! More, please! (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3-6. Using the omniscient narrator to solicit advice from dear reader, Horvath spins a delightful yarn introducing the Pepins, a family unable to solve even the most obvious problem. Faced with the dilemma of toads in their shoes, the Pepins decide to follow the suggestion of a Kalamazoo reader, who recommends finding toadstools for the toads to sit on. When the family cow gives lemonade instead of milk, the Pepins serve lemonade-cheese to their very fine neighbor, Mr. Bradshaw. The chapters are episodic, but the story does reach a climax of sorts: the Pepins seem finally able to manage their own difficulties--prompting a family vacation to visit and thank those dear readers for all their suggestions. Absurd characters and situations and witty repartee are Horvath's strengths, and although her asides may occasionally go over the heads of her audience, the wordplay is a great argument for reading this aloud; adults will enjoy the story almost as much as children. Hafner's black-and-white sketches add to the fun and help to break up the chapters for younger readers. --Kay Weisman Copyright 2004 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-The Pepin family's troubles range from a cow that gives lemonade to disappearing kitchen utensils to their very fine neighbor falling in love with a barber pole. Like Harry Allard's Stupids, the characters' nonsensical antics offer plenty of humor. The individual Pepins, including a cat and dog, have fairly distinct personalities that come through in the dialogue. It's Horvath's arch narration, though, that adds spice and unpredictability. At each chapter's end she calls upon readers to "think" their solutions directly to her own "unusually large psychic antennae," then shares the suggestions she receives in the next chapter. Most of the "readers" hail from towns with especially unusual names such as Nanafalia and Zigzag, eventually representing all 50 states. And from their ideas, they seem to be about as confused as the Pepins themselves. Horvath's mock serious commentary sets just the right tone and makes the novel more than just a series of silly episodes. The author also responds with good humor to the suggestions she receives ("Your author declines even to comment on this"). The sly humor is just right for upper-elementary-school kids, and this book should be a fun read-aloud for younger listeners.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Horvath puts a distinctive and decidedly hilarious spin on the "problem novel" with this chronicle of a family's unusual (to say the least) mishaps. She also carries the metafictional conceits of Allen Ahlberg's Better Brown Stories (1995) and such a step further--for not only does she converse with her characters, she invites readers to chime in psychically from wherever they may be, duly recording any suggestions she "receives," along with their towns of origin. Poor Pepins: if it's not a rash of toads in their shoes, or a cow who's suddenly giving lemonade when it's cheese that's in short supply, it's Mrs. Pepin's latest crying jag, or the mysterious disappearance of all the tableware. Young readers won't be able to turn the pages fast enough to discover the Pepins' newest predicament, to find out its seldom-obvious cause, to check out the reader comments winging in from the likes of Boring, MD, Forks of Cacapon, WV, and other real places--but mostly to meet the Pepins, part Bagthorpes, part fugitives from Chelm, and their fittingly quirky neighbors, all of whom are rendered in Hafner's sunny, simply drawn cartoons. A delight. (Fiction. 10-12) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Table of Contents
| Toads in Their Shoes | p. 3 |
| Grilled Lemonade Sandwiches, Anyone? | p. 12 |
| The Dapper Man at the Door | p. 25 |
| Junebug Arrives | p. 38 |
| The Mysterious Envelope | p. 55 |
| The Other Very Fine Neighbor | p. 64 |
| The Mouse Squisher | p. 77 |
| The Very Fine Neighbor-Off | p. 91 |
| Mrs. Pepin Wishes to Be ... (well, that would give it away) | p. 107 |
| A Little Night Flying | p. 120 |
| Mr. Bradshaw Steps Out | p. 130 |
| The Pepins' Plan | p. 143 |
| The Pepins Behave Like Relics of a Lesser Civilization | p. 159 |
