Looking for Bobowicz is a
wonderful story for children about a boy who calls himself Nick but whose real
name is Ivan Itch.  His family has just moved from Happy Valley in the suburbs
to Hoboken, New Jersey, because Nick’s parents want him to grow up with an
understanding of urban life.   Nick is none too pleased by the move, since he
no longer has a big house and garden and the day they move in his bike is
stolen.  Fortunately, he soon makes friends with some neighborhood kids, Bruno Ugg
and Loretta Fischetti.  The three of them go off to the Hoboken Bat Hat
Festival and at the end of it Nick catches sight of a tall mysterious lurking
stranger riding his little bike.  Nick becomes determined to find this
phantom.  The three adventurers explore Nick’s basement full of old stuff,
discover a collection of press clippings telling the story of a boy Arthur Bobowicz
who had a giant chicken that ran amok in the streets of Hoboken.  They want to
find out if the story is true and when it happens. 

Daniel Pinkwater’s novel is full of
great characters, like Vic Trola, the disk jockey at the local pirate
radio station Radio Jolly Roger.  The kids go to the library and get help from
the librarian Starr Lackawanna; they ask questions of a hobo Meehan the Bum,
and even meet a mad scientist Professor Mazzocchi.  Pinkwater’s reading of the
novel in the unabridged audiobook is perfectly excellent, although occasionally
the sound quality is uneven.  Listening to Looking for Bobowicz is a
great deal of fun, and it also provides some reassurance that the experience of
moving house to a new place can work out well.  Highly recommended. 

© 2004 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also
editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is on
philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Children, AudioBooks