A review by lazygal
Hokey Pokey by Jerry Spinelli

3.0

Perhaps I'm just slow, but it took me a while to realize that Jack was a real boy - this could have been a version of Toy Story. He lives in Hokey Pokey, a land filled with interesting creations and activities, like Snuggler and Tantrums and the Hokey Pokey shaved ice man. He's famous in Hokey Pokey, the owner of "Scramjet", an amazing bike culled from the wild herd; with his two friends, LoJo and Dusty, he's one of the Three Amigos. Then one day he wakes up, "Scramjet" has been taken by a girl (YUCK!!), his tattoo is fading and something is... not quite right.

The deeper message of the book is that it's ok to grow up, ok to stop loving the things that once obsessed you, ok for your younger friends and enthusiasms to seem far away. There will come a day, or perhaps a few days, when that transition from "young" to "slightly older" will happen and this is all a natural part of life. Obviously, this is a book for a younger crowed than Stargirl, but it may serve to make fans of Spinelli continue to be fans as they age.

ARC provided by publisher.