On Career Day, Lily finally meets her father's boss, Larry, just an average guy who hides his face under a sack, has a rubbery tail peeking out from his suit, and periodically dumps buckets of brine over his head. Right. Although Lily's dad is clueless ("He has a skin condition, Ms. Nosy"), Larry is actually the leader of evil, laser-eyed whales who plan to take over the world wearing stilts-unless Lily can stop them. These dastardly sea creatures will leave kids laughing in their wake, thanks to deadpan prose, a ludicrous plot, and campy illustrations, all with the exquisite absurdity of a Monty Python skit. (ages 8 to 12)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2005
An intrepid trio must defeat an insidious plan to use whales (equipped with metal stilts and laser-beam eyes) in a takeover of the state capital-and then the world!-in this highly wacky novel. Anderson (The Serpent Came to Gloucester, reviewed above) sets a comic tone from the start: "On Career Day Lily visited her dad's work and discovered he worked for a mad scientist who wanted to rule the earth through destruction and desolation." Lily's father, like all the adults in the novel, is blissfully unconcerned about the ludicrous events going on around him (e.g., his boss, Larry, wears a grain sack over his head and extends a blue, rubbery hand when he meets Lily). Her father dismisses the heroine's fears when Larry pronounces that he plans to literally "take over the world" ("Honey, sometimes adults use irony. They don't really mean what they say"). Introspective, shy Lily then turns to her two more brazen friends, each the subject of a successful children's book series (the book's humor is very self-referential-for instance, awkward Harcourt writers follow them around asking for details of their exploits). Armed with an array of adjectives, non-sequiturs, bizarre asides, irrelevant footnotes and running gags, Anderson sends up decades of children's book series, and creates a hysterical tale of his own. Cyrus's meticulously rendered black-and-white illustrations riff on comic books and '50s-era advertisements, escalating the humor factor in this highly accessible volume. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Gr 4-6-A story written with the author's tongue shoved firmly into his cheek. Lily Gefelty's father works for a mad scientist who wears a sack over his head. When she overhears him say that he wants to take over the world, her oblivious father assures her, "Honey, sometimes adults use irony. They don't really mean what they say." Nonetheless, the 12-year-old calls on her two best friends, Katie Mulligan, the star of the "Horror Hollow" novels (think "Goosebumps"), and Jasper Dash, also known as the Boy Technonaut (think "Tom Swift"), to investigate. The trio soon learns that Larry does indeed plan to conquer the world using mind-controlled whales on stilts with laser-beam eyes. No adult will believe them, so it's up to the kids to save the Earth. Readers who have graduated from Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" (Scholastic) or who know their Lemony Snickets (HarperCollins), should love this first title in a new series. It's full of witty pokes at other series novels and Jasper's nutty inventions.-Walter Minkel, New York Public Library Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Anderson's mind is a very strange place, and this almost indescribable wackiness is further proof. In a grand send-up of all that is series books, it echoes Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and those with cliffhanger chapter endings; references Godzilla movies and offspring; talks to, at and around the reader and is generally awfully funny (and we do mean awfully). Our heroine is ten-year old Lily, whose dad works in an abandoned warehouse making stilts for whales. His boss, Larry, seems to be blue and kind of whale-like, although he has a lot in common with Dilbert's boss, too. It's pretty obvious that there's a nefarious plan at work, so Lily enlists her two best friends, Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, and Katie Mulligan of Horror Hollow, who, like Jasper, already has a book series chronicling her adventures. The three figure out that the whales are about to take over the world, and they save it amid many explosions, catastrophes and asides from the author. Promises-or threatens-to be a series of its own. It doesn't get any better than this. (Fiction. 9-12)
*"Armed with an array of adjectives, non-sequitors, bizarre asides, irrelevant footnotes, and running gags, Anderson sends up decades of children’s book series, and creates a hysterical tale of his own."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
*"Goosebumps fans and readers who get Lemony Snicket’s brand of humor will be rolling in the aisles."
—Booklist, starred review
Marc Cashman's portrayal of this adventure completely embodies this offbeat story. Twelve-year-old Lily discovers that her unknowing father works for Larry, an evil genius determined to take over the world with an army of stilt-walking whales. Lily and her adventuresome friends are the only thing standing in the way. Cashman offers the bombastic voice and tension-inducing pauses a listener might expect from old-time radio. The advertisements sprinkled throughout the story for other books relating the adventures of Lily and her friends beautifully add to this illusion. The radio show element and Cashman's exquisite rendition of this kooky story perfectly suit the audio format. W.V.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
