(from the book jacket)
When Victor’s parents go away for two weeks, leaving his
older sister in charge, he is glad when she takes off on a vacation of her
own. Home alone, Victor can do anything
he wants. He stays up late, eats his
pizza with anchovies, visits the zoo, and enjoys his favorite TV news program
without interruption.
It is while staying up late watching television that he
discovers evidence of a secret community of intelligent lizards, and that there
seems to have been an invasion from outer space that went almost
unnoticed. In the course of some
detective work, he meets Chicken Man, an eccentric with a hen in his hat who
knows about these things. Together, they
visit the lizards in Thunderbolt City.
Victor is left all alone at home. And what he does with his freedom is watch
Walter Cronkite. There is something
endearing about this boy who is a little different from the other children he
knows. And as things that he cannot
understand start to happen around him and he is all alone to figure it out he
learns about what he is capable of.
Chicken Man, who helps him with his quest, is a quirky fun
character. (As is his chicken.) Actually the whole story is quirky and
fun. It has a surreal feel to it because
Victor and Chicken Man seem to see and know things the rest of the world
doesn’t. The world goes on around them
as truly spectacular things happen and they are the only ones who notice. I found it a fun read but it is dated and I
think some things children today might not get.
But it is a light read, which I found nice. It’s not that there is no thinking involved
but there is no fighting for your life, or war or other horrible stuff going
on. It is a fun fantasy story.
