Review: Hokey Pokey

Hokey Pokey

by Jerry Spinelli

 

Book Description:

Welcome to Hokey Pokey. A place and a time, when childhood is at its best: games to play, bikes to ride, experiences to be had. There are no adults in Hokey Pokey, just kids, and the laws governing Hokey Pokey are simple and finite. But when one of the biggest kids, Jack, has his beloved bike stolen—and by a girl, no less—his entire world, and the world of Hokey Pokey, turns to chaos. Without his bike, Jack feels like everything has started to go wrong. He feels different, not like himself, and he knows something is about to change. And even more troubling he alone hears a faint train whistle. But that's impossible: every kid knows there no trains in Hokey Pokey, only tracks.

 

Review:

I had a really hard time with this book. When you start reading it, it's as if you are waking up and have entered a dream.  Nothing is explained very well and Spinelli reveals the way things work veerrrryyyy slowly.

 

At first I really had no idea what Hokey Pokey was supposed to be - why were the kids there, what IS this place?  I was SO confused. It took until more than halfway through the book for me to understand enough to realize that Hokey Pokey was a metaphor for the land of childhood!

 

Not the book for me. :/