One of the fake ads features an asterisk next to the declaration "AVAILABLE AT FINE STORES NEAR YOU!" The accompanying footnote, which occupies the bottom of seven pages, starts thusly "No longer available on the shelves at fine stores near you. There is the promotion of Gargletine, Jasper Dash's drink of choice and fake ads for books starring Jasper Dash (the Tom Swift character who says things like "Great Scott! Will these cads never cease mocking my jumpsuit?") and Katie Mulligan (kind of cross between Nancy Drew and Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Ostensibly a spoof of the children's literature of the 50s and 60s it is also an homage an homage to Nancy Drew and Tom Swift and the pulp, series children's books of that era. This is one of those books that just simply IS clever. This is not one of those books that tries too hard to be clever. And funny in a way that appeals to a seven year old and his jaded mother. Then I read it and laughed and laughed and laughed. I picked this up for my kid at the library, flipped through it real quick to scan for possible emotional potholes and decided that it was so ironic and tongue-in-cheek that it would be fine.Īnd it was.
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