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Summary
Summary
When Nick moved from the leafy suburbs to muggy, urban Hoboken and his bike was stolen, he wasn't pleased.
Then he found
a place where he could listen to pirate radio friends with a stack of Classics Comics newspaper reports about a kid named Arthur Bobowicz and a 266-pound chicken named Henrietta the secret entrance to Sibyl's Cave and much, much more, all of it practically true.Get an ice-cold Dr. Pedwee's grape soda and prepare to enjoy this Pinkwater Special, complete with saucy dialogue, snarky wordplay, more than a few red herrings, and one bowl of disgusting oyster stew.
Author Notes
Author, illustrator, and radio commentator Daniel M. Pinkwater was born in Memphis Tennessee on November 15, 1941. He is trained as an artist and attended Bard College. In 1969, he wrote and illustrated his first book, The Terrible Roar. Since then he has written over 50 books for children, young adults, and adults. He is also a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and regularly reviews children's books on Weekend Edition Saturday. While he has illustrated many of his works, his most recent ones have been illustrated by his wife Jill Pinkwater.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-When his parents move to Hoboken, NJ, and his bike is stolen the first hour he's there, clever and resourceful middle-grader Ivan Itch goes looking for the thief, and in the process meets quirky adults and solves some mysteries. He becomes friends with neighborhood kids Bruno Ugg and Loretta Fischetti, and they attend the town's Bat Hat Festival, where a tall, phantomlike figure appears. He pedals away on Ivan's "light blue bike with pink hearts and flowers painted on the frame." Then the children's Classics Comics books are missing. Surprises and plot twists pepper the story as the youngsters set out to discover just what is going on. The adults evade their logical questions about a mysterious, oversized chicken and the young detectives seek help from the librarian, Starr Lackawanna, "a woman with wild hair, wearing what looked like a gym suit with rainbow-striped leg warmers and cape." With her assistance, the children, especially Ivan, piece together the evidence that the phantom is hiding the stolen goods in an old abandoned cave. The 266-pound hen Henrietta who starred in The Hoboken Chicken Emergency (Aladdin, 1977) enters the scene and sets the stage for many laughs. Ivan is a well-developed character, and readers are likely to sympathize with him. Jill Pinkwater's black-and-white, block-print illustrations are a perfect match for this zany story that's sure to elicit lots of grins.-James K. Irwin, Nichols Library, Naperville, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Daniel Pinkwater hatches Looking for Bobowicz, illus. by Jill Pinkwater, in which a giant chicken is once again wreaking havoc in Hoboken. Nick and his friends uncover news articles about Henrietta, a giant chicken that rampaged through the town years before, but they feel certain that only Arthur Bobowicz-who figured prominently in Pinkwater's The Hoboken Chicken Emergency-can help them find the answers. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Readers looking for Bobowicz have had a long wait. It's been over a quarter-century since he and his plus-sized pullet Henrietta were introduced in The Hoboken Chicken Emergency. Now Arthur Bobowicz has grown up, leaving a new young protagonist, Ivan (""Call me Nick"") Itch, to tell this wacky tale. Nick and his parents have lived in Hoboken for less than one day when his bicycle is stolen. His new friends Loretta Fischetti and Bruno Ugg suggest that the bike was taken by a mysterious local phantom who ""lurks in the shadows, menaces people, does things."" A glimpse of a tall hooded figure riding Nick's bike and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about a giant chicken that once terrorized Hoboken lead Nick and his friends to believe Henrietta may again be running amuck. This loosely plotted comic mystery features dialogue straight from the Borscht Belt, zany characters with even zanier names (town librarian Starr Lackawanna, disk jockey Vic Trola), and all manner of outlandish encounters and near-disasters. Who but Pinkwater could conceive of asphyxiation by sauerkraut fumes? (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Almost 30 years after The Hoboken Chicken Emergency (1977), the streets of that fair city are once again being stalked, not by a six-foot chicken, but by a mysterious phantom. Enter on the scene Ivan Itch ("Call me Nick"), whose parents have just moved the family to Hoboken to have an "urban lifestyle." Nick fairly quickly makes friends with neighbors Loretta Fischetti and Bruno Ugg, who share with him a love of Classic Comics and Dr. Pedwee's soda. An exploration of Nick's basement uncovers an old scrapbook about the Emergency, spurring a joint mission to unmask the phantom and discover whatever happened to Arthur Bobowicz. Aided by rather demented librarian Starr Lackawanna, Nick, Loretta, and Bruno solve both mysteries, which turn out to be far more closely related than they thought. The story itself is slight, though characteristically funny; what makes this book is the way the old--customs, buildings, literature, friends--constantly informs the new, in a truly sweet celebration of what was and what can be, if we just remember and respect. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-6. Strange things are happening in Hoboken. For starters, a phantom has stolen newcomer Ivan ("call me Nick") Itch's bicycle. And then there are all those rumors about a giant chicken on a rampage. What's going on? Well, it's hard to say, since there's a local tradition that nobody ever gives information in response to a direct question. Ivan/Nick is convinced that Arthur Bobowicz has the answers--if he could ever locate him, that is. Meanwhile, the phantom strikes again. Ivan finds allies in his new friends Bruno Ugg, Loretta Fischetti, and local librarian Starr Lackawanna, who is "crazy as a bat." Of course, she's in good company, since everything in this sequel-of-sorts to The Hoboken Chicken Emergency 0 (1999) 0 is pretty nutty. But then Daniel Pinkwater is the czar of zany, so what else would you expect? Perhaps, a few more unforced laughs. Not the master's best work, but a pleasant enough diversion for fans. --Michael Cart Copyright 2004 Booklist