{"id":30,"date":"2007-09-09T22:27:26","date_gmt":"2007-09-10T02:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/09\/review-of-the-clue-of-the-linoleum-lederhosen-by-m-t-anderson\/"},"modified":"2007-09-09T22:27:26","modified_gmt":"2007-09-10T02:27:26","slug":"review-of-the-clue-of-the-linoleum-lederhosen-by-m-t-anderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=30","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen, by M. T. Anderson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"linoleum_lederhosen.jpg\"<\/div>\n
M. T. Anderson’s Thrilling Tales:
\nThe Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen<\/div>\n
by M. T. Anderson<\/div>\n

Reviewed September 9, 2007.
\nHarcourt, Orlando, 2006. 243 pages.<\/p><\/div>\n

This book, another \u201cThrilling Tale\u201d in the spirit of Whales on Stilts,<\/em><\/a> is a delightful spoof of children\u2019s series books. Both my sons, ages 18 and 12, read this book, and laughed so much and read bits aloud so often, I simply had to read it myself. It may not be great literature or a terribly compelling story, but it is hilariously clever.<\/p>\n

Katie Mulligan, her friend Lily, and Jasper Dash, Boy Detective, are ready for a vacation, so they take advantage of a coupon for a free dinner at the Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort. Once there, they learn that the coupons are fake\u2014and many other people, all stars of series books, have received them as well.<\/p>\n

Then the Hooper Quints are kidnapped on their way to the hotel. Which of the dashing detectives will be able to solve the mystery? Then a valuable necklace is stolen while people are out searching for the quintuplets. Are the two mysteries tied together?<\/p>\n

The story isn\u2019t the point of this book. It\u2019s got lovely unlikely plot twists, just like the series books they are spoofing would have.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the first section that my 12-year-old felt he HAD to read to me. It\u2019s talking about how Jasper Dash\u2019s books are somewhat out of date.<\/p>\n

Often, if you go to a town library and under Keyword Search type \u201cJasper Dash,\u201d you\u2019ll come up with a list of his books\u2014and beside each one, it says: \u201cWithdrawn. Withdrawn. Withdrawn. Withdrawn.\u201d This means that they are no longer in circulation. Some librarian has taken them off the shelf, wiping away a tear, and has opened the book to the back, where there\u2019s a pouch for a card dating back to the time of the Second World War, and she\u2019ll crumple up the card, and then she and her fellow librarians will take special knives and slice away at the book and will eat the pages in big mouthfuls until the book is all gone, the whole time weeping, because they hate this duty\u2014it is the worst part of their job\u2014for here was a book that was once someone\u2019s favorite, but which now is dead and empty. And the little cheerful face of Jasper Dash, heading off to fight a cattle-rustling ring in his biplane, will still be smiling pluckily as they take their Withdrawal Knives and scratch his book to pieces.<\/div>\n

(How did he know<\/em>?)<\/p>\n

A section my 18-year-old was compelled to read to me was actually on the back flap:<\/p>\n

M.T. Anderson is seven monkeys, six typewriters, and a Speak & Spell. It took them ten years to write The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen.<\/em> Their previous books include Adf2yga^vvvv, WpolwOox.S Ppr2dgn shr Elssf,<\/em> and The Riverside Edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare.<\/em> Adf2yga^vvvv<\/em> was a National Book Award finalist. The M. T. Anderson Monkey collective is located outside Boston. Its hobbies include flash cards, hopping, and grooming for lice. It divides its time between the parallel bars and the banana trough.<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who wouldn\u2019t want to read a book with such a blurb?<\/p>\n

Here is the review on the main site:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/linoleum_lederhosen.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M. T. Anderson’s Thrilling Tales: The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen by M. T. Anderson Reviewed September 9, 2007. Harcourt, Orlando, 2006. 243 pages. This book, another \u201cThrilling Tale\u201d in the spirit of Whales on Stilts, is a delightful spoof of children\u2019s series books. Both my sons, ages 18 and 12, read this book, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14,17,22,6,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-delightfully-silly","category-humorous","category-light-reading","category-mystery","category-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}