Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars is one of Daniel Pinkwater's earliest books. I read it because it was mentioned by Yggdrasil Birnbum in The Yggyssey.

Leonard Neeble, the main character, befriends a the new kid in school. He's bored to death, having also recently moved to this new town. Nothing ever seems to happen her and his boredom is bringing out the worst in him.

Alan Mendelsohn claims to be from Mars. Now in later Pinkwater books, out of the blue statements should be taken at face value. But this book doesn't carry itself with the same bravado so it's hard to tell if Alan and Leonard are telling things as they are.

Although this book has its diehard fans, it didn't pull me into its story as much as I was hoping or expecting. Alan for all his bizarre stories is actually rather boring. He doesn't tell his stories with the same panache as Yggdrasil does. ( )

One of my ALL TIME favorites from when I was a kid - used to re-read this one constantly. I read it again a year or so ago and it was just as good as I remembered! ( )

One of my ALL TIME favorites from when I was a kid - used to re-read this one constantly. I read it again a year or so ago and it was just as good as I remembered! ( )

This was the first Pinkwater book I ever read, at one of my sons urging. I loved when I first read it, and rereading it I was impressed by the way Pinkwater throws together cliched genre elements like mysterious bookstore owners and ancient secrets with genuine childhood sorrows, in this case moving to a new school. This is a classic. ( )

This was the first book I ever read that in any way accurately described by experience of middle school, and as such, I really don't exaggerate when I say that it changed my life. If I could give one book to every adolescent in America, it would be this one.

It's also the book that got me started on collecting crank paperbacks and works on the paranormal and anomalous, so it's responsible for that entire bookcase worth of books that I don't have any more shelf space for. ( )