What-the-Dickens

November 5, 2007
More ambitious than many of Maguire’s (Leaping Beauty
; Wicked
) previous works, this novel combines the author’s taste for the fairytale backstory with explorations of the values of storytelling. A contemporary narrative frame opens the book with a setting inspired by Hurricane Katrina: after a terrible storm brutalizes the region, the parents in a strict fundamentalist family have wagered outside, leaving their three children with rapidly diminishing supplies in the care of their 21-year-old English-teacher cousin, Gage. To divert them from their hunger and their anxiety, Gage spends an entire night telling them about a “skibberee” (tooth fairy) who grows up on its own and only by chance discovers that the presence of other skibbereen. Dense with allusion, metaphor and pun, Maguire’s prose shines, compensating literary-minded readers for the slow start of the skibberee story. By the time the urgency of the skibberee story matches that of the framing tale, however, Maguire’s agenda emerges in its complexity. Each of the characters takes a different approach to Gage’s story: Dinah, the 10-year-old, needs the magic that Gage’s tale delivers; her older brother claims to need to eschew its fancy, in favor of his parents’ teachings about faith and reason; Gage needs story to exist; and the youngest, who celebrates her second birthday, needs the wish the story promises. Comic scenes, elaborate tableaux and suspenseful sequences will entertain readers who prefer more straightforward fiction, but those readers may be frustrated by the unresolved ending. Ages 10-13.

November 1, 2007
Gr 5-8-In the midst of a Katrina-like disaster, 10-year-old Dinah and her siblings, teenager Zeke and toddler Rebecca Ruth, find themselves cut off from society, with only their distant cousin for company. To distract the siblings from their predicament, Gage begins to tell them the story of the skibbereen, the creatures generally known as tooth fairies. His story focuses on What-the-Dickens, an orphaned skibberee whose adventures bring him into contact with a house cat, a bird, a tiger, and a variety of humans, including Gage himself. What-the-Dickens meets Pepper, who takes him back to her colony, where he learns about his people's history and comes to understand their role in bringing wishes to humans. Maguire intersperses What-the-Dickens's story with that of Dinah and her family, interweaving the child's worries and experiences with those of the skibberee. The author's flair for language shows up in his detailed descriptions of characters and setting, such as What-the-Dickens's hair that "flew everywhere, as if eager to get off his scalp." The siblings' problems meeting their basic needs ring true, and their relationships with one another add depth to the story. There's much here to appeal to both Maguire's younger and older fans, and the immediacy of the story and combination of fantasy and reality will grip even reluctant readers."Beth L. Meister, Pleasant View Elementary School, Franklin, WI"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2007
In a deserted neighborhood, 10-year-old Dinah waits out a violent storm with her brother, sister, and older cousin, who distracts the kids with an original tale. His wild yarn, about a naive tooth fairy who becomes an iconoclast hero, is the bulk of this inventive novel. A friendless orphan, What-the-Dickens has little sense of his world until he meets tooth fairy Pepper, who helps him realize his own identityand talents as a tooth fairy.In turn, What-the-Dickens helps Pepper accomplish a challenging mission and shake up the strict hierarchy of her not-quite-benevolent tooth-fairy colony. The dual plots make for a crowded, disjointed whole, and the sophisticated language, complex colony rules, and literary references may elude somekids. But the wholly original premise, sharp characterizations, and dark-and-stormy setting will easily delight readers, especially older ones whowill catch more of the gleefully dark humor, political parodies, and broad questions about magic and self-discovery: Accidents and acts of the imagination. I guess thats how we make ourselves, and how were made.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2007
Stranded in their remote home during a catastrophic hurricane, Dinah, Zeke, and their baby sister have only impractical cousin Gage for guidance. He is useless at fixing generators but a good storyteller. As the long night passes, he tells the tale of What-the-Dickens, an orphan skibberee (fairy) who falls in with Pepper, a tooth fairy from Northwest Sector. Pepper is indoctrinated with the military ethos of her colony, and What-the-Dickens's naivete and sympathy threaten to undermine her obedience and ambition. When Pepper's hopes for promotion depend on one last tooth retrieval, What-the-Dickens insists on helping -- and that's where lonely young Gage comes in. Maguire plays with notions of fact, imagination, and art in this novel, which is in many ways a confection of borrowings. Familiar phrases of poetry, novel, and script grace the prose (a list of acknowledgments is appended). "We all pick our names from the accidental scriptures," says Pepper, "but we change them so as not to be guilty of theft." Maguire's consciousness of his literary predecessors is amusing, and his prose is always sharp and articulate. But his characters come across most potently when he gives voice to his own poetry. "He knew nothing about aerodynamics, except how the heart could lift and lift," he says of What-the-Dickens, conveying vividly that feeling of first love.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)