Hokey Pokey

xxpish - Welcome to the wonderful land of Hokey Pokey, where only kids live, and play games and ride their bikes. Where Amigos Jack, LaJo and Dusty live and play. But when they wake up one day, they feel that something is different. Jack’s adored bike, Scramjet is stolen by Jubilee; a girl! Jack is mad at Jubilee, and tries to get his bike back; but Jack doesn’t succeed. Then, Jubilee does something worse; she spray-paints Scramjet yellow! But that is not the only thing wrong. Jack’s tattoo is fading! To become a big kid, every kid in Hokey Pokey has to get a tattoo of an eyeball on their bellybutton. Only Jack’s tattoo is fading, and he’s not the only one who knows. Things are starting to look like the Story of The Kid, that everyone has heard from their half-walnut. Will Jack turn out like The Story? In a wonderful novel of friendship and change, Spinelli vividly illustrates how a kid can “move on”. My thoughts: Hokey Pokey is a great book. I just love the unique world that Spinelli has created. I mean, who would think of Tantrums, a bubble that angry kids go into and tear up dolls? Jerry Spinelli would. I loved the theme of the story; sort of moving on, and going away, and changing. This is the first Spinelli book I have read, but definitely not the last. There was something that I would change, though. The first few chapters are… CONFUSING. I mean, is a tiny, brown bird flying over Hokey Pokey ANY WAY involved in the story? Yeah. But after you get over that, it starts getting good. Jerry Spinelli is a wonderful author and I hope he writes many more books like this.

November 12, 2012
Spinelli (Jake and Lily) creates a surreal landscape reminiscent of J.M. Barrie’s Never Land in this poignant celebration of childhood exuberance. Don’t bother looking for adults in Hokey Pokey, where boys and girls dine on flavored ice and spend their days watching cartoons, playing cowboy games, and using their bicycles as trusty steeds. Jack’s bike, Scramjet, is the most coveted of all, and one day it’s stolen by his archenemy, Jubilee. This marks the first of a series of unsettling events that give Jack, a boy on the brink of adolescence, the eerie impression that “things have shifted.” It isn’t just that his tattoo, the mark of all residents, is fading; something deep inside him is pulling him away from familiar landmarks, friends, enemies, and routines. Spinelli’s story will set imaginations spinning and keep readers guessing about Jack’s fate and what Hokey Pokey is all about (so to speak). The ending is both inevitable and a risk (it invokes one of the more clichéd tropes in literature and film), but Spinelli’s dizzying portrait of life in Hokey Pokey will keep readers rapt. Ages 10–up.

Starred review from December 1, 2012
If childhood were a place.... In the adultless land of Hokey Pokey, a dry, sandy environment reminiscent of the Southwest, children arrive when they've outgrown diapers and receive a ticklish tattoo of an eye on their abdomens. At midday they line up for a serving of hokey pokey, an ice treat in any flavor imaginable. The rest of their day is spent playing, watching a giant television with nonstop cartoons or riding bicycles, which are horselike creatures that roll in herds and can buck their owners off at will. In this inventive, modern fable, Jack awakens with a bad feeling that's realized when his legendary Scramjet bike is stolen by Jubilee, a girl no less, and his tattoo has started to fade. As he searches for his bike and the reason why "[t]he world is rushing at him, confusing him, alarming him," he recalls The Story about The Kid who grew up and hinted at tomorrow, an unrecognizable place to children. With nods to J.M. Barrie, Dr. Seuss and Philip Pullman, Newbery Medalist Spinelli crafts stunning turns of phrase as Jack "unfunks" and tries to "dehappen" the day's events. While reluctantly accepting his growing up, Jack brings Hokey Pokey's bully to justice, suddenly finds Jubilee an interesting companion and prepares his Amigos for his imminent departure. A masterful, bittersweet recognition of coming-of-age. (Fiction. 10-13, adult)

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Starred review from January 1, 2013

Gr 5-7-Hokey Pokey is a place where children live and rule themselves, riding bicycles like horses, watching cartoons on huge outdoor screens, throwing tantrums and getting hugged, all without an adult in sight. Their lives are almost pure joy as they dance the eponymous dance, savor the eponymous frozen treat, and listen to The Story of the Kid through little shells they carry in their pockets. Jack is their hero and ringleader, dealing with bully Harold the Destroyer, teaching Kiki lessons in sports and Lopez lessons in life, until the day things begin to change. Jack wakes to find that his beloved bike, Scramjet, has been commandeered by Jubilee, whom he despises because she's a girl. Answering his Tarzan cry of despair, Amigos LaJo and Dusty race to his side and notice before he does that Jack's stomach tattoo, given to all children once they're out of diapers, is starting to disappear. Fighting against the realization that Jack is going to leave them, they lure him into one last bike roundup, roping him and tying him down until Jubilee releases him, recognizing that he cannot resist the pull away from all of them toward the Forbidden Hut and the Train, and into The Story. Using elements of myth, allegory, fantasy, and not-quite science fiction, Spinelli has skillfully combined a stream-of-consciousness narrative with delicious inventive language to create a vivid, dreamlike world. This unforgettable coming-of-age story will resonate with tween readers and take its rightful place beside the author's Maniac Magee (Little, Brown, 1990) and Louis Sachar's Holes (Farrar, 1998).-Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2012
Grades 7-12 In the place called Hokey Pokey, the kidsNewbies, Snotsippers, Gapergums, Sillynillys, Longspitters, Groundhog Chasers, and Big Kidsare everywhere, doing what kids do: streaking, leaping, chasing, shrieking, hokeypokeying, and more. In short, playing. Yes, kids are everywhere, but there isn't an adult anywhere except for the Hokey Pokey Man, who brings square snowball treats to the kids. It's here in this eccentric place that Jack, a popular Big Kid, awakens one morning to hear the whispered words It's time. Could this have something to do with the story all the kids know, in which The Kid announces, I am going away ? Readers will find out as they follow Jack throughout one memorable day of discoveries, including the knowledge of something called tomorrow. Spinelli has written a tender, bittersweet story of coming of age and the changes and leave-takings it involves. In its spirit and style, the novel evokes Ray Bradbury's sometimes sentimental, nostalgic work, especially Dandelion Wine. Spinelli remains his own man, however, and his latest sui generis novel is sure to delight his many fans. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: An extensive outreach campaign that ranges from a designated hashtag to a national author tour has put this title on the radar of readers well beyond Spinelli's already large audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)