Review – The Yggyssey by Daniel Pinkwater (4/5 stars)

This book was the sequel to Pinkwater’s “The Neddiad”. While this book wasn’t as hilarious and quirky as “The Neddiad” it was still a great read.

Iggy is wondering why the ghosts that live in the hotel her and her parents permanently inhabit are disappearing. With the help of the main characters from the Neddiad (Neddie and Seamus) she tries to find out. As with the Neddiad the path to the answer is funny, not at all straight-forward, and full of general craziness.

I was excited that this book was told from Iggy’s perspective; I really liked her character in the Neddiad. I was surprised to find that I didn’t enjoy her perspective quite as much as Neddie’s. Neddie was just so matter-of-fact and fascinated by everything that it was really funny to follow his thoughts. Iggy is more practical and down-to-earth. I also missed the cross-country traveling present in “The Neddiad”; the majority of this book takes place in LA.

The other thing that bothered me a bit was that the beginning of the book was rather slow. About half way through things really take-off as the kids start off on their adventure to find the ghosts, but it takes too long to set all that up. Also this story doesn’t have the-world-is-ending urgency of the first novel.

Despite the above complaints, this book was still a fun and quirky read. Some of the coincidences that take place, the crazy references, and the quirky characters are amazing. It was a very hard book to put down. I think you could read this book without reading “The Neddiad”; although you will miss out on some of the jokes in this book as well as the better of the two books (which is “The Neddiad”).

It is again a book I would recommend to all types and ages of people. I can’t wait to read it to my son when he gets a few years older (at two he doesn’t have the patience for non-picture books yet). Both “The Neddiad” and “The Yggyssey” were great books. They prompted me to acquire more of Daniel Pinkwater’s previous works. He is such an interesting (and hilarious) storyteller.