I read a lot of YA during the hot months. It's a thing. I enjoy it. This summer has been FULL of bad-servicable choices on my part- some bad enough to be fun, some perfectly fine, a few just plain bad.

This is none of that. This is a genuinely good book. I feel like a lot of YA is written about precocious kids by people who either were not, or do not remember what it was like to be precocious children. This kid, however, is an entirely believable precocious child. When reality doesn't make sense (Preparing for atomic war by practicing "duck and cover"? Please.) then things that don't make sense are easy to accept as reality (ghosts? why not). There's a line when the kids are discussing whether or not they are turning into cats, one of them points out that they've all grown whiskers, and another asks "well, how do you know this isn't just puberty?" that utterly encompasses the confusion of being a smart kid with not nearly enough data.

I laughed out loud, and I'm an adult. I do not have any teenage kids for a test audience, but I 100% recommend this one. ( )

This was good right up until the end. I just didn't like the ending. Otherwise, if you enjoyed The Neddiad you're going to enjoy this book. ( )

This book was the sequel to Pinkwater's "The Neddiad". While this book wasn't as hilarious and quirky as "The Neddiad" it was still a great read.

Iggy is wondering why the ghosts that live in the hotel her and her parents permanently inhabit are disappearing. With the help of the main characters from the Neddiad (Neddie and Seamus) she tries to find out. As with the Neddiad the path to the answer is funny, not at all straight-forward, and full of general craziness.

I was excited that this book was told from Iggy's perspective; I really liked her character in the Neddiad. I was surprised to find that I didn't enjoy her perspective quite as much as Neddie's. Neddie was just so matter-of-fact and fascinated by everything that it was really funny to follow his thoughts. Iggy is more practical and down-to-earth. I also missed the cross-country traveling present in "The Neddiad"; the majority of this book takes place in LA.

The other thing that bothered me a bit was that the beginning of the book was rather slow. About half way through things really take-off as the kids start off on their adventure to find the ghosts, but it takes too long to set all that up. Also this story doesn't have the-world-is-ending urgency of the first novel.

Despite the above complaints, this book was still a fun and quirky read. Some of the coincidences that take place, the crazy references, and the quirky characters are amazing. It was a very hard book to put down. I think you could read this book without reading "The Neddiad"; although you will miss out on some of the jokes in this book as well as the better of the two books (which is "The Neddiad").

It is again a book I would recommend to all types and ages of people. I can't wait to read it to my son when he gets a few years older (at two he doesn't have the patience for non-picture books yet). Both "The Neddiad" and "The Yggyssey" were great books. They prompted me to acquire more of Daniel Pinkwater's previous works. He is such an interesting (and hilarious) storyteller. ( )