Found

March 29, 2004
In the tradition of NPR's National Story Project comes this funky collection of letters, flyers and other miscellany from the pages of Found
magazine. Rothbart, the magazine's editor and founder, has pulled together the funniest, weirdest and most moving items found by himself and his readers over the years. Fairly typical is the note left on a car's windshield, intended for a wayward boyfriend named Mario: "You said you had to work then whys your car here at HER place?.... I hate you..." piling invective upon invective until concluding: "p.s. Page me later." Rothbart and company find stuff just about everywhere: on buses, taped to trees, underneath Coke machines, in the recycling bin at Kinko's. Some items are heartbreaking (a missing person poster found in Manhattan after September 11), some hilarious (an algebra test, flunked with creativity and panache) and some just plain odd (a note directing residents to lock a door in order to "prevent unauthorized people from entering the building and defecating in the washing machine"). There are some explanations, but mostly, the trash speaks for itself, reproduced with Rothbart's particular punk-collagist aesthetic. At times, reading the notes and letters feels uncomfortably voyeuristic, and inevitably, readers are left wanting more, wishing for details about these lives beyond what the sketchy fragments provide (did that scoundrel Mario ever change his wanton ways?). A provocative and original book, Rothbart's collection manages to pull laughter and drama from the flotsam and jetsam of society. (May 4)

Forecast:
Found! could eventually dethrone
The Onion's Our Dumb Century as many homes' bathroom reading of choice. The magazine has been praised by publications as diverse as
Spin, GQ, the
New Yorker, the
Los Angeles Times and
U.S. News & World Report.

November 1, 2004
Adult/High School-Since elementary school, Rothbart has been collecting things he finds-in the trash, on the bus, on the ground. When he decided that others might be interested in them, he cut and pasted the best ones into a fanzine called Found. Other people quickly began sending him items, and the magazine grew into this "best of" collection. It contains predominantly handwritten notes, but there are also photos, drawings, e-mails, grocery lists, and even a picture of a kitten that was found in a library book drop. Many of the finds are compelling on their own, but what really entertains is the imagined possible backgrounds. One must wonder about the story behind the note, "Don't take matress. Leanne died on it. Shame on you. Apt. 306." There is also an interview with cartoonist Lynda Barry, and a poignant one with a man who found a message in a bottle 19 years after it was sent to sea. Though many of the items will bring laughs, there are also sad ones-lots of breakup notes and those written by children to their estranged parents, and some moving flyers from the World Trade Center collapse. Some of the pieces were obviously written by high-school students and passed in class. Reluctant readers will enjoy browsing through the silly, the sexy, and the scatological, but this book will appeal to anyone's inner eavesdropper and packrat instincts.-Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.