The Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered
What Happened to All the Ghosts,
Found Out Where They Went, and
Went There by Daniel Pinkwater
Classic Pinkwater
A sequel to critically acclaimed THE NEDDIAD told from the point of view
of Neds friend, Iggy
La Brea Woman is missing. Valentino, too. The ghosts of Los Angeles
are disappearing right and left!
Iggy Birnbaum is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, no matter
what Neddie Wentworthstein and Seamus Finn say.
There’s just the little matter of traveling to another plane of existence,
first…and then, of course, not pissing off a witch once she gets there.
From L.A. to Old New Hackensack, fans of The Neddiad will be delighted
to join up with Iggy, Neddie, Seamus, and the usual apparitional entourage
for another weird and wonderful adventure by Daniel Pinkwater. As Neil
Gaiman said about the first book: its funny and tender and strange and
impossible to describe. What Pinkwater does is magic and Im grateful for
it.

THE IGGYSSEY is vintage Pinkwater: laugh out loud funny, incredible
characters, dialogue, humor. And like THE NEDDIAD, this book will be
similarly illustrated throughout by Calef Brown.
Personal Review: The Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered What
Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out Where They Went, and
Went There by Daniel Pinkwater
It might seem impossible to write a review of a Daniel Pinkwater novel
without using the words "zany," "quirky," "eccentric" or just plain "weird."
But I'm going to give it a shot, even though Pinkwater's latest book --- like
many in his beloved body of work --- could be accurately described by any
of the above.
It's a follow-up (of sorts) to his 2007 novel THE NEDDIAD, this time
focusing on Neddie's friend and neighbor, Yggdrasil (Iggy) Birnbaum.
Unlike Neddie Wentworthstein and Seamus Finn, her best friends, Iggy
doesn't go to Brown-Sparrow Military Academy. Quite the contrary; she
attends Harmonious Reality School, where avocados are revered for their
anti-stress properties and where "you can major in finger painting through
sixth grade." Not surprisingly, school doesn't give Iggy's brain much of a
challenge; instead, she enjoys spending time with the numerous ghosts
that populate the Hollywood hotel, the Hermione, where she and her
parents live.
Almost without her noticing it (they are always kind of invisible, after all),
the ghosts --- from the prehistoric ghost of a woman found in the La Brea
tar pits to the extremely vain ghost of silent movie star Rudolph Valentino
--- are disappearing. When even Iggy's special friend, the frequently
morphing bunny ghost Chase, makes a run for it, Iggy, Neddie and
Seamus follow her to Old New Hackensack, a gathering place in another
plane of existence for specters and spirits from our world.
As they travel through this parallel universe, they find places that might
seem familiar to readers, but are strange and frightening to these 1950s-
era kids, such as New Yapyap City: "Our schools are no good, kids aren't
allowed to use the better parks, we feed them junky breakfast cereal that's
full of sugar, sell their parents a lot of defective toys and expensive
clothing, and give them stupid books to read, and stupid television
programs, and throw them into Juvenile Hole for any reason at all, or no
reason." Finally, Iggy's journey culminates in a supernatural showdown
with someone with whom she might share a surprising connection.
THE YGGYSSEY is full of delights, even for kids who didn't read about
Iggy and her friends in THE NEDDIAD. There's Pinkwater's playfully
sentimental depiction of the innocence of an earlier time: "I had heard of
pizza pie because of `That's Amore,' the Dean Martin song, which was on
the radio all the time, but I didn't actually know what it was.... I always

pictured the pizza pie as being something like a cream pie. It's round, but it
does not resemble any pie I ever saw --- it's not a dessert, it does not
contain fruit, it does not have a top crust and a bottom crust.... It's served
hot. It tastes great! It is, without any doubt, the greatest food ever invented,
and I predict it is going to be insanely popular." Or there are the myriad
literary references to such classics as ALICE IN WONDERLAND, "Hansel
and Gretel," THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS and THE WIZARD OF
OZ("Shmenda, the good witch of the Northeast... Extremely good witch. So
good, she's boring. But good.").
What's most enjoyable about Pinkwater's novels is the fun he seems to
have creating them, ensuring that readers will gleefully go along for the
ride.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
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