Wow!

Could there be a better review than this? So fun and spunky and, well, good!

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

by Barbara O’Connor

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Ages 9-12

Hardcover: $16.99

Fall, 2009

Review by Grier Jewell

Barbara O’Connor has a knack for creating offbeat characters living a few degrees north of normal (but never with cartoonish effect). The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis is no exception.

Recipe for this irresistible middle grade novel:

Mix Together

1 very bored boy with a bad eye

1 no good, no account uncle

1 grandmother with an obsessive fear of cracking up

Add

A pack of wild children stuck in a stranded RV

Several mysterious Yoo-hoo boats floating down a creek

1 eccentric girl with wings

Pour into a pan of mad talent and READ!

Though the world of Popeye is far from average, it’s normal as far as he’s concerned. All he needs is a little adventure to break up the boredom of every day tick tick ticking away.

As the title states, this is a small adventure. Small, as in: a spark of genius wrapped up in a tiny childhood treasure. Any world O’Connor creates is one I want to inhabit. Popeye’s is no exception. Get The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis. I command you.

See more fantastic reviews by Grier Jewell, reviewing for the Whidbey Writers Workshop.