The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

My wish for this book would be for the publishers to have possibly done a better job writing the flyleaf for this book. In the description I can see great potential for exciting and engaging adventures but they have done little to give the potential reader a sense of this adventure, and instead

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have written a rather straightforward summary that just barely illuminates what seem like some very comedic characters. I think potentially utilizing an excerpt of the author’s own words would have served this book better in drawing in young readers, and given the potential reader a far better sense of what to expect.

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O’Connor, Barbara. (2009). The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux/Frances Foster Books. 150 pp. ISBN 978-0-374-37055-8 (Hardcover); $16.99.

When one is a young boy in a small South Carolina town, one does not expect big adventures to come his way. If Popeye and

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Elvis are lucky, they will have a small adventure. They even spend hours trying to drum up a small adventure in this small southern community, filled with mud, gravel, dirt roads, and woods. Popeye received his name when his uncle Dooley shot him in the eye with a BB gun. He spends his time attempting to keep his grandmother Velma from cracking up, lest he be placed under the control of less adept relatives, such as uncle Dooley. When Elvis Jewell’s Holiday Rambler gets stuck in the mud, Popeye and Elvis seek adventure. Popeye is enchanted with Elvis who has an arsenal of “bug-brain booger breath” insults that Popeye, who is working on building his vocabulary would love to own. Using vocabulary words as a part of the story is not unique, but O’Connor uses this device well and it is NOT done just to please adult readers—it matches Popeye’s personality and his family (with a grandmother who runs around worried about dementia and reciting the names of the royal family and doing crosswords to keep from cracking up). The vocabulary words also serve as a measure of the loneliness and restlessness of Popeye. It is clear to the reader that Popeye will not always stay in Fayette even though this is never mentioned in the text (although he may return to Fayette after getting out into the world for an even bigger adventure). This book shows that step of learning how to reminisce and how that will eventually lead Popeye into seeking newer and bigger adventures. The language of the book feels correctly southern, which adds to its authenticity and its appeal. During an expedition along the creek, the boys discover a small adventure floating their way in the form of Yoo-hoo boats. When they finally meet wing-wearing Princess Starletta Rainey, they may not even realize that their small adventure has graduated. The voice in this book, the setting, the pacing is crisp and vivid. I would not be at all sorry or surprised to see this one receive awards this January. While this book is intended for middle school and younger, the writing is sophisticated enough for older students too.

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In Fayette, South Carolina, the highlight of Popeye's summer is learning vocabulary words with his grandmother until a motor home gets stuck nearby and Elvis, the oldest boy living inside, joins Popeye in finding the source of strange boats floating down the creek.

Popeye, so nick-named when a b-b gun left it's mark on his left eye, is the kind of quiet, withdrawn kid who would hunger for an adventure if he had the gumption to do so. So when a mobile home gets stuck in the gravel road in front of Popeye's house one rainy night, Popeye's heart rate nearly

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increases with the possibilities. The next day five kids tumble out to explore the place where they are newly struck and - does Popeye dare to disturb the universe? - an adventure is afoot. Maybe.

A boy named Elvis, about the same age as Popeye, is among the stranded clan, a fearless, cussing, adventurer of the first degree. Popeye takes Elvis to a nearby creek and together they discover small boats made of Yoohoo drink boxes with mysterious messages inside. What do the messages mean? Where are they coming from? What's further up the creek? Popeye doesn't know because he's never thought to go exploring on his own, so it falls to Elvis to drive their exploration up the river to solve the mystery. If it were up to Popeye, who marvels at every turn at Elvis's brash language and free spirit, Popeye would sit in his room and stair at a stain in the ceiling listening to a clock going tick tick tick...

In Tolstoy's world, this is a "stranger comes to town" story, and Elvis is sort of a catalyst for Popeye's sort of coming out of his shell. I say sort of because at no point does Popeye articulate what he wants beyond vague longing, and he continues to tag along with Elvis like a pathetic puppy with hardly an original thought of his own. As the adults spend days trying to dislodge the motor home - and they're about as slow to get this taken care of as an elephant in a molasses pit, a bit of authorial deus ex machina if ever there was one - there is a palpable hope in the reader that Popeye is going to break out of his shell and stop being a wimp. But the open ending doesn't suggest Popeye has really changed and that this one quiet, sad little adventure may be the highpoint of his life.

Lacking a character-driven desire or conflict, The Small Adventures of Popeye and Elvis reads like an overly long short story, a meditation on life literally off the beaten path in a world with a vague nostalgic feel to it that seems all the more sad for what it lacks. Things sort of happen, with the overall effect being "Yes, and the point of it all is...?"

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In Fayette, South Carolina, the highlight of Popeye's summer is learning vocabulary words with his grandmother until a motor home gets stuck nearby and Elvis, the oldest boy living inside, joins Popeye in finding the source of strange boats floating down the creek.

Popeye, so named because his uncle Dooley had accidently shot his eye out with a B.B gun when he was three, is bored. His life consists of staring at the heart shaped stain on his bedroom ceiling and listening to his grandma Velma recite the kings and queens of England to keep her mind sharp. He

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lives with her because his parents are absent from his life. Occasionally his mother pops in for a visit. Popeye sees his life as boring until the day the Holiday Rambler gets stuck in the mud near his house. That is the day that he meets Elvis and they set out to have a small adventure while they wait for the motor home to get unstuck from the mud. Setting off through the woods toward the creek they find a boat made out of a Yoo-Hoo carton. Their new adventure is to find out where they come from and why. This was a cute book. Growing up in the country I often found things to be boring on rainy days. Like Popeye's grandmother, my mother always wanted us within hollerin' distance. It was funny how something as simple as finding out where the boats came from could be considered an adventure. I look forward to recommending this book.

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The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis
A humorous and folksy, Tom Sawyer-like tale, about one-eyed Popeye growing up in South Carolina and his adventures with the new kid, Elvis, (Henry) who comes into town in his parent’s Holiday Rambler motor home. Yoo-hoo boats with mysterious words aboard

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intrigue the boys’ and their new “Spit and Swear” club. Southern dialect throughout the story, along with “vocabulary words” (ie: divert, qualm, and livid) help young readers learn new words and help propel this adventure tale of where the “dead dogs live.”

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This book will be one of my best summer-reading suggestions! Set in a small town, the story reminds me of growing up without every hour of my little-kid day scheduled with play dates and camps and organized activities. These 2 oddly named boys break the rules of "staying close to home" and find

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marvelous adventures. I hope the same for all kids this summer!

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Popeye's summer stretches out before him, stuck in the house with his grandmother and his no-account uncle while the rain pours outside. But when the rain clears and Popeye discovers a motor home stuck in the mud outside his house, Popeye meets Elvis and they decide to have a small adventure

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together.

It's very well-written, made me laugh out loud in parts, and managed to pull off serious bits without veering into Depressing. The story's a quiet one and it reminded me of The Penderwicks for boys.

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Perfect little gem of a book. Rural south with dysfunctional families and wonderful vocabulary words dropped into the story. Never knew why I wanted to know English royalty in order!

Two children go on a "small adventure" to pass time in their boring town. They go on an adventure to find the person who sends the Yoo-Hoo boats down the river.

This book is about a boy who lives a boring life until a family in a RV come to town. The new boy, Elvis, takes Popeye out into the woods to a creek where they want to find adventure. They start finding boats with hidden messages and eventually find the girl who is sending them. Elvis and his

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family leave after summer and Popeye and his new friend continue having little adventures.

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Nothing against the writing, or whatever. I just didn't feel like there was much going on at all, even though there was a small adventure and boats with cryptic notes inside. The "small Southern town in America" setting and feel of the book was difficult for my EL410 students to digest. However,

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even though at first my students thought the book was boring, they soon became interested in the "adventure," some of them going so far as to finish reading the book early.

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Small-town South Carolina life is pretty routine for Popeye until he discovers the silver RV camper stuck in the ditch, and meets the family living there: Elvis and all his brothers and sisters. Popeye and Elvis seek a "small adventure" apart from the little ones and find it in the mysterious

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Yoo-Hoo carton boats floating down the stream. Who's making these boats, where do they come from, and what's the meaning of the strange notes attached? Barbara O'Connor brings the rural South alive on the page once again.

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2010 Maine Student Book Award Nominee

Cute, but not life-changing. I enjoyed all the vocabulary words.

already ordered... look at all those awards, but no Newbery... Newbery surely does emphasize historical fiction... If I ever finish the Newbery project in the Childrens' Books group, I'll have to choose another award to cover....

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A small book, a small adventure... but a big

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impact. The other reviewers are speaking from the heart - I won't try to convince you to read this but refer you to them, instead. I will comment only on the wonderful way O'Connor gives word nerds their fix. The very first vocabulary word, vicissitude, is one I've never bothered to look up, and so didn't realize until now just what it means. And there are insults, cussing, rhymes, puzzles, and metaphors galore. Not to mention plot, setting, characters, etc. How O'Connor manages to get so much accomplished in such a short book astounds me. I'll look for more by her.

[Her] wrath still hovered in the air like a swarm of hornets.""

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