Adventures of a Dwergish Girl

by Daniel Pinkwater, Aaron Renier

Overview

Bestselling author Daniel Pinkwater (The Hoboken Chicken Emergency) returns in classic form with the illustrated, middle-grade adventures of one young Molly O’Malley: a dwarf (well, dwarf-ish) girl who just won’t settle for a boring life in the Catskills.

“Captivating, cool and crazy!” —Sam Lloyd, author of Mr. Pusskins

“A Pinkwater whirlwind in all its glory.” —Booklist

Molly O'Malley is a clever, adventurous girl. She is also a Dwerg. Dwergs are strange folks who live very quietly in the Catskill mountains, have lots of gold, and are kind of like dwarves (but also not!).

Molly isn’t interested in cooking and weaving, as she is expected to be. So, she sets off to see the world for herself. Which means a new job, a trip to New York City, prowling gangsters, an adorable king, a city witch, and many historical ghosts. More importantly, it means excellent pizza, new friends, and very quick thinking.

Now someone is pursuing the Dwergs for their gold. Can Molly O’Malley save the day?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616963378
Publisher:	Tachyon Publications
Publication date:	09/30/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	192
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Daniel Pinkwater is the author and sometimes illustrator of over eighty (and counting) wildly popular books, including The Neddiad, The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, Lizard Music, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Fat Men from Space, Borgel, and the picture book The Big Orange Splot. He has also illustrated many of his own books, although for more recent works that task has passed to his wife, illustrator and novelist Jill Pinkwater. Pinkwater is an occasional commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and appears regularly on Weekend Edition Saturday, where he reviews kids’ books with host Scott Simon. Pinkwater also contributes to Wondertime, and has in the past been spotted on the pages of the New York Times Magazine, OMNI, and many other publications.

Pinkwater lives with his wife and several dogs and cats in a very old farmhouse in New York’s Hudson River.

Aaron Renier (Illustrator) is the author of three graphic novels for younger readers; Spiral-Bound, Walker Bean, and Walker Bean and the Knights of the Waxing Moon. He is the recipient of the Eisner award in 2006 for talent deserving of wider recognition, and was an inaugural resident for the Sendak Fellowship in 2010. He teaches drawing and comics at universities in Chicago.

Editorial Reviews

10/19/2020

Teen Molly O’Malley is a Dwerg who lives in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Like all Dwerg families, Molly’s has extraordinary wealth from mining gold. As a female Dwerg, Molly is expected to tend goats and vegetables and marry a “slob male Dwerg,” but she is also permitted to attend school in nearby Kingston. After a year and a half of high school, Molly knows two things: that Dwergs, though exceedingly boring, possess magic, and that she needs to live on her own. After getting a job at a pizza place, Molly meets the usual, delightful assortment of oddball characters who show up in stories by Pinkwater (the Hoboken Chicken series)—here, the cast includes an 18th-century teenage ghost and the Catskill Witch. With their help, Molly must stop androids disguised as British Redcoats from burning New York City, as well as gangsters from stealing the Dwergs’ gold. Molly is curious, practical, and resourceful, and despite her desire for independence, she remains connected to her Dwerg family and heritage. The comically absurd ending is an enjoyable wrap-up to this fast-paced, unexpected adventure that combines history, folklore, and nonsensical fun. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Captivating, cool and crazy!! This story is an inspiration to us all: Be brave. Have adventures. And, most importantly, follow your dreams.”
—Sam Lloyd, author of Mr. Pusskins

“Adventures of A Dwergish Girl is a book with every single thing I love about Pinkwater novels. Reading Daniel Pinkwater—as a kid and as an adult was hugely important to my development as a writer and a human being. Meeting another Pinkwater fan is always a sign that you are among good people.”
—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother

Praise for Daniel Pinkwater

“Daniel Pinkwater is so obviously the funniest writer of children’s books that he should be made a Living National Treasure.”
—Washington Post Book World

“Pinkwater is the uniquest. And so are his books. Each uniquer than the last . . . A delight in oddness. A magic that’s not like anyone else’s.”
—Neil Gaiman

“Daniel Pinkwater [who] is, in my opinion not only one of the best YA writers ever, but also a life-changing force in the life of a reader.” —Leah Schnelbach, Tor.com

“The most perfect manufacturer of weird and absurd stories this side of Karel Čapek (with whom he seems to share a thing for lizards) or maybe Douglas Adams (with whom he shares an interest in sardonic aliens and travel through spacetime).”
—Foreword Magazine

“No author has ever captured the great fun of being weird, growing up as a happy mutant, unfettered by convention, as well as Pinkwater has.”—Boing Boing

“A writer for smart kids . . . Pinkwater writes for, and about, people who are not ashamed to look at life a little differently.”
—Kathy Ceceri, Wired

Praise for Lizard Music

[STARRED REVIEW] “Funny, properly paranoid, shot through with bad puns and sweet absurdities, and all about a baffled kid intent on tracking reality (as slippery as lizards) in a media-spooked milieu.”
—Kirkus

[STARRED REVIEW] “Wildly imaginative . . . This is a natural high.”
—Booklist

Praise for The Hoboken Chicken Emergency

“An uproariously funny and surprisingly sophisticated book.”
—Newsweek

“The story has vitality and rock-the-boat humor.”
—School Library Journal

“A contemporary tall tale that will stretch middle graders’ imagination, sense of humor, and enthusiasm for reading. For absurdity with perfect timing, not many can match.”
—Booklist

Praise for The Neddiad

“This amiable, old-fashioned adventure saga by the droll and prolific Pinkwater is a lot of fun to read, full of unexpected plot twists, LA atmosphere, and goofy names.”
—KLIATT

“The title of this book ought to give you an idea of its goofy wonderfulness . . . What makes this book so delightful—apart from the zaniness of the storyline—is the author’s lively, humane wit.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Pinkwater, master of nostalgia-tinged satire (or is it satire-tinged nostalgia?), sets this very funny encomium to the ’40s in a swath of America stretching from Chicago to L.A.”
—Washington Post

From the Publisher

08/01/2020

Gr 3–6—Written in Pinkwater's unique offbeat style, this novel is part legend, part modern(ish) personal narrative. A Dwergish girl (of Dutch descent) who calls herself Molly O'Mally recounts days at home and her community life before telling of her adventures outside of that isolated, peaceful place in the Catskills where Dwerg life has remained the same for generations. Molly leaves her Dwerg village to go to the city of Kingston, NY, where she sells a couple Dwerg gold coins, gets a job in a local pizza shop belonging to a man from Sierra Leone, and sets up a tent of string and garbage bags in the woods behind the shop. On one late night walk in the old town stockade, Molly meets a ghost who becomes a friend and helps Molly understand an apparent plot to use androids to reenact the burning of Kingston from 1777. Molly and her (living) friend, Leni, take a bus trip to New York City to have hotdogs and papaya juice, which Molly later revisits to see the Yorkville witch who can help her solve the mystery. Witty, unorthodox, and highly entertaining twists and turns abound as Molly uses the wisdom of the Dwergs, the help of the local genius DJ, magic parsnips, and her Uncle Norbert's guidance to save Kingston. Small ink drawings open each chapter with a bit of entertainment and some information about the story. VERDICT Those who enjoy a good mystery with an unusual plot, strong characters, and smart language will find connections between this unbelievable story and the incredible adventures of real life.—Lindsay Persohn, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa

School Library Journal

Read More