Ethan Cheeseman, the famous inventor, is on the verge of creating his greatest invention: the LVR. This is fortunate, as it is the only chance he has to go back in time and save his beautiful genius wife. Unfortunately, there are dastardly enemies who wish to control the LVR. There is the evil corporation PlexiWave, with the violent Messrs. 5, 29, 88, and 207; the Russian spy Pavel and his multilingual monkey Leon; and secret government agents El Kyoo and Aitch Dee.
Ethan manages to avoid capture time and again with the help of his three smart, witty, attractive, polite, and relatively odor-free children; a sock puppet named Steve; and their psychic dog Pinky. There is Jough Psymthe, the eldest, who is fourteen and is a better than average pitcher. Twelve year old Magenta-Jean Jorgenson, an archer who takes particularly good care of her hair. Lastly comes eight year old Gerard LaFontaine; who wears Steve the sarcastic sock-puppet, chews massive wads of gum, and collects dirt clods that look like former presidents. On their journey between they will befriend a cow-less poetry-spouting cowboy, a circus of injured performers, and a few neighborhood children. Which is good, because the people following them are getting closer and they'll need all the help they can get.
I found this book to be rather fantastic. Funny, witty, over the top without being cloying. It is narrated by Dr. Cuthbert Soup, a made up character that dispenses odd advise that generally then ends up relating back to the main story - patenting and protecting your inventions, choosing a doctor, being a good mother. I was a bit confused at the beginning because of the randomness of the names that also changed in the third chapter. But eventually I got into the random jumps and quick switches. I liked the fact that the beginning wasn't too laden with introductory information and allowed you to gather the information as the children do. It felt a little bit more organic.
I will forewarn you that this literature is not breaking any new ground, it's not throwing any curve balls, and is fairly predictable. But it's so well done! Funny, witty, and just all around lovely.
My only complaint is the end. How random! What a complete cop-out!! Balderdash! Why are you throwing pirates, unknown ancestors, and unnecessary time travel into it? UNNECESSARY TIME TRAVEL! UNNECESSARY!!!
Moving on, that is actually my only complaint. Shocking I know. I know this is a rather short review, but it was such a delightful tale. Fluffy. I was chortling with delight for three hours on the plane. Awesome.
A Whole Nother Story came out last September and the sequel A Nother Whole Nother Story came out in December.
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