Fat Men From Space (Paperback)

What makes this particular story interesting is that there's no actual hero or heroes who save the day in the end. The main character, a boy whose new tooth filling picks up the aliens' radio transmissions, is merely a helpless witness to all of the unfortunate (yet strangely silly) goings-on. Fortunately, outside events play a part in the rotund ETs prematurely concluding their invasion, and the story ends on an upbeat & slightly sappy note.

Unfortunately, some folks might nowadays see this book's titular antagonists as being somewhat un-PC. You know, that whole 'FAT Men..." thing and such. Well, all I can say about it is this: if you've ever seen a picture of the author, you might be a little less squeamish about his use of the word "fat", 'cause he's a fairly hefty guy himself. The way I see it: if he can deal with it, so can the reader.

One more thing: 'Fat Men From Space' is followed up by 'Slaves of Spiegel', which I also recommend you take a look at. It too has plenty of the Pinkwater trademarks of silly situations and lighthearted & whimsical humor.

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However, one day, when William tries to use a chain link fence as an antenna, he gets a shock which “changes the channel” on his radio tooth, and he discovers that he can tune in radio transmissions from space!! Soon, he’s abducted by large men in bad suits and terrible ties who plan to invade earth!! What’s a boy to do??

Mr. Pinkwater has been a very popular children’s author with many of his books from the 1970’s still in print today. One of my childhood favorites was “The Big Orange Splot”. While other authors from that time period have had their books slowly fade away, Mr. Pinkwater’s are still around and attracting new readers. Perhaps one of the main reasons is because his books are genuinely funny and witty. There’s plenty of silly humor for the young, beginning reader, and also plenty of subtle plays on words that will amuse the more advanced reader (or the parent reading with their child!!).

Generally I love Mr. Pinkwater’s stories, but “Fat Men from Space” isn’t one of his best. It starts off fine and laugh-out-loud funny, but about halfway through the book the plot goes into high gear and the reader starts to feel a bit gypped: events that you would assume would take a few days to happen are over and done with in about 3 or 4 paragraphs. Descriptions loose their tangy zingers of absurdity and it feels like Mr. Pinkwater was in a rush to finish the book before a deadline or something. The ending is also a bit weak, making the book feel like it was left open-ended for a sequel that never came.

If you’re a diehard Pinkwater fan, then read the book by all means!! If you have a beginning-to-intermediate reader who is looking for an easy-to-read book that will keep ‘em laughing, this is a good choice. The language is easy to read and the pace is fast enough that even a beginning reader can probably finish it in one or two sittings. This will encourage them to read more and show that reading doesn’t have to be dry and booooring.

However, for the more intermediate to advanced reader, “Fat Men…” may be disappointing *because* of it’s fast pace. For them, I would recommend “Lizard Music” by Mr. Pinkwater.

Not bad, still a lot of fun, but I would have expected just a bit more from Mr. P.