The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization
Grade 5–9—A bright and breezy adventure with a smart and funny narrator, this story is part historical travelogue, part Saturday matinee, with bits of turtle lore and Catskills stand-up comedy. Los Angeles in the late 1940s is a magical place of swashbuckling movie stars, restaurants shaped like hats and doughnuts, tar pits, fancy private schools, and Neddie Wentworthstein. His eccentric, wealthy father has decided to relocate the family from Chicago to L.A. On the journey, a shaman named Melvin gives Neddie a turtle carved from a meteorite, possibly the rarest and most precious one in existence, and the only thing standing between humanity and the destruction of all civilization. Accidentally left behind in Flagstaff, AZ, Neddie is befriended by Seamus Finn, his movie-star dad, and Billy the Phantom Bellhop. The four visit the Grand Canyon and are held up at gunpoint by Sandor Eucalyptus, who is looking for the turtle. When they make it to Los Angeles, well, then things get even weirder. The ending is a little abrupt and kids may not get all the references, but they'll get the mystery, the excitement, the friendships, the aliens from outer space, the battle between good and extraordinarily awful evil, and the live woolly mammoth that performs circus tricks in a replica of the Roman Forum (told you things get pretty weird). Fans of Sid Fleischman will find much to like in this goofy and lovingly nostalgic historical fantasy.—Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.