Description:
From Publishers Weekly
Konigsburg delivers a witty, fast-paced story of two likable, headstrong children, who encounter the ghost of an old actress. Jeanmarie and Malcolm are plummeted into the magic underground world of flamboyant, red-haired, cigarette-puffing Tallulah. Tallulah sets them a series of tasks righting wrongs on earth (including exposing a phony faith healer by exposing him, in one of the book's funniest scenes), and making them invisible in order to perform these works. The tasks lead, in fine fairy-tale fashion, to the one big task, and then to the rewardin this case, realizing their talents and finding the cou
From Publishers Weekly
Konigsburg delivers a witty, fast-paced story of two likable, headstrong children, who encounter the ghost of an old actress. Jeanmarie and Malcolm are plummeted into the magic underground world of flamboyant, red-haired, cigarette-puffing Tallulah. Tallulah sets them a series of tasks righting wrongs on earth (including exposing a phony faith healer by exposing him, in one of the book's funniest scenes), and making them invisible in order to perform these works. The tasks lead, in fine fairy-tale fashion, to the one big task, and then to the rewardin this case, realizing their talents and finding the courage to let them emerge. The dialogue is sharp and funny, the characters pleasing and Tallulah is a pip. And although Konigsburg is not didactic, it seems clear that with all this talk of magic, the real magic is the discovery of one another by two lonely chidren, and the loving friendship that ensues.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-9 "There was a time when I was eleven years old. . .when I was invisible," begins Jeanmarie Troxell, future star and heroine of Konigsburg's humorous fantasy, which is set on Long Island in the early 1970s. Feeling invisible at her new school, Jeanmarie makes friends with Malcolm Soo, also a loner, over the burial of a dead blue jay. Digging in the earth mound they call Jericho Tel, they are whisked underground by Tallulah, the ghost of a red-haired actress, who wants them to discover her missing diamond. Now made truly invisible by Tallulah's Orgone box, they begin a search which leads to some very odd people, as well as to self-discovery and deeper friendship. By the time The Regina Stone is found, Jeanmarie has gained the confidence to shed her "invisibility" at school and try out for her first play. Konigsburg excels at creating unusual characters. She is less successful at tying her fantasy to the real world; there seems no particular "rightness" in Tallulah being reached through a hole in the ground in a trailer park. However, the wry humor of Jeanmarie and Malcolm's invisible adventures among Tallulah's old theatrical friends is worth the mental leap necessary to get there. Each chapter ends with one of Tallulah's maxims, such as "a child actor is a vacuum that Nature has every right to abhor." Ruth S. Vose, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Manufacturer: Atheneum
Release date: 29 April 1986
ISBN-10 : 068931194X |
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