Voss: How I Come to America and Am Hero, Mostly
In a series of letters home to his friend Meero, Vospop Vsklzwczdztwczky (Voss for short) tells the hilarious story of how he smuggles himself to America in a crate of black-market cheese puffs with his gloomy father Bogdown and his nutty uncle Shpoont.\ Settling into the rundown Slobovian section of town, Voss soon finds his first job by opening the door for debutante Tiffany McBloomingdale (an unheard-of act of politeness), rescues his father from a sinister hospital, and even gets the girl...
Search in google:
In a series of letters home to his friend Meero, Vospop Vsklzwczdztwczky (Voss for short) tells the hilarious story of how he smuggles himself to America in a crate of black-market cheese puffs with his gloomy father Bogdown and his nutty uncle Shpoont. Settling into the rundown Slobovian section of town, Voss soon finds his first job by opening the door for debutante Tiffany McBloomingdale (an unheard-of act of politeness), rescues his father from a sinister hospital, and even gets the girl of his dreams, though not the one he expects! Through Voss's comically broken English, readers will find a remarkably fresh view of America. Brimming with pointed satire, a healthy dose of action, and a one-of-a-kind narrator, Voss's crazy adventures are sure to leave a lasting impression.Publishers WeeklyWith his delusional uncle and morose father, bighearted 15-year-old Vospop leaves behind his homeland, Slobovia, to chase the American dream. Too bad that he ends up being chased also-by a feared Slobovian black marketeer and by a fellow Slobovian immigrant whom he is "fated to marry, no matter what." Writing a series of letters to a friend, in broken English and nonsensical Slobovian, Voss recounts his "dipp, dipp trobbles" and tosses off his observations--"In America it is O.K. if your friends are boring or deep-pressed. All you do is take out celephone and talk to somebody else instead." The language, the nutty plotting (it includes a nurse named Jane Ashcroft who presides over a sinister hospital) and even nuttier sendups of classic stereotypes (luckless immigrants, greedy businessmen, self-absorbed teenagers) are enough to make readers roar with laughter. Yet Ives (Scrib) delivers a pointed social commentary that not only steers clear of cynicism but preserves its narrator's sturdy idealism. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
\ Publishers WeeklyWith his delusional uncle and morose father, bighearted 15-year-old Vospop leaves behind his homeland, Slobovia, to chase the American dream. Too bad that he ends up being chased also-by a feared Slobovian black marketeer and by a fellow Slobovian immigrant whom he is "fated to marry, no matter what." Writing a series of letters to a friend, in broken English and nonsensical Slobovian, Voss recounts his "dipp, dipp trobbles" and tosses off his observations--"In America it is O.K. if your friends are boring or deep-pressed. All you do is take out celephone and talk to somebody else instead." The language, the nutty plotting (it includes a nurse named Jane Ashcroft who presides over a sinister hospital) and even nuttier sendups of classic stereotypes (luckless immigrants, greedy businessmen, self-absorbed teenagers) are enough to make readers roar with laughter. Yet Ives (Scrib) delivers a pointed social commentary that not only steers clear of cynicism but preserves its narrator's sturdy idealism. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)\ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.\ \ \ \ \ Children's Literature\ - Melissa Stickles\ Vospop Vsklzwczdztwczky (Voss) is a young man from Slobovia who smuggles himself illegally to America, along with his father Bogdown and his uncle Shpoont, in a crate of black market cheese puffs. Voss tells of his nutty adventures through letters home to his friend Meero. On his first day in America, Voss realizes that Slobians are treated as the lowest of lows. However, Voss meets the elite Tiffany McBloomingdale and lands a $100,000 job. Things change for Voss when his father disappears in a mysterious hospital and he learns that the black marketer who owns the illegal cheese puffs wants to murder him. Voss finds himself tangled in an underground body part factory that uses unsuspecting Slobian immigrants as victims. Voss finds a way to rescue his father and unite the surrounding communities, thus eliminating discrimination against Slobs. The author, David Ives, has effectively put into prospective the life of an immigrant in America by combining comic relief and a creative use of the English language. Reviewer: Melissa Stickles\ \ \ KLIATT\ - Myrna Marler\ In a world where Borat was a popular movie, based on the idea of a clueless foreigner encountering American cynicism, consumerism, and racism, while not understanding the evils he is witnessing, this book is a nice YA version of a similar story. Voss, whose real name is Vospop Vsklzwczdztwczky (which is, of course, unpronounceable in any language) smuggles himself and his crazy uncle to America from an eastern European country called Slobovia in a crate filled with "blackmarket imitation cheesepuffs." He seeks a better life, after first establishing a home base in the Slobovian community in a city that is suspiciously like New York but is mostly known as America. Here Voss, who has kindly shortened his name for American readers, has a wild and crazy series of adventures: he encounters mob bosses, assassins, a Paris Hilton clone, nursing homes, internal organs for sale, and various other cultural markers. Often ridiculous and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, Ives is clever at creating a (fake) Slobovian language complete with well-known proverbs. (Sample: "Leave and learn.") Voss's spelling is politically incorrect in these days when accent is supposed to be indicated by syntax and diction rather than misspellings (letters are, for example, "ladders," and trouble is "trobble"), but the misspellings take some work to figure out and often offer more comic fun while evoking Voss's accent. The underlying theme here may be satire of American mores, but it's also an adventure story where the intrepid, innocent hero saves the day and gets the girl, who is fortunately, in the Slobovian tradition, built like a fire hydrant. Reviewer: Myrna Marler\ \ \ \ \ School Library JournalGr 7 Up\ Vospop Vsklzwczdztwczky is a "15-year-old illegal immigrant Slobovian boy who got into dipp, dipp trobble." In letters to a friend back home, he tells of his journey to America in a "great big sheep," smuggled in a shipment of black market imitation "Chiss Poffs" with his gloomy father and his delusional uncle. Voss discovers that Slobovians are the "lowest of the low" in American society-the illegal Slobovian section (Voss doesn't know whether they've landed in "New York City, New York, San Francisco, Arizona, or Detritus, Michigan") is "the most deep-ressing part of town" where residents can't find work, lose hope, and sink into poverty or crime. Voss gets tangled up with billionaire Noah McBloomingdale and his celebrity daughter Tiffany; with Slobovian crime boss Bilias Opchuck; and with Leena Aleenska, the girl from his village whom a fortune-teller has predicted he'll marry. Amid these and more colorful characters, Voss heroically foils an evil scheme to harvest the organs of immigrants and sell them to rich Americans. With the same knack for humorous accents that he brought to Scrib (HarperCollins, 2005), Ives blends laugh-out-loud inanity with real social commentary on U.S. culture-from clothing and celebrity to advertisements and eating habits-and the plight of immigrants. Readers will chuckle over the customs and proverbs of fictional Slobovia and enjoy understanding what it is to be American through Voss's endearing critical eye. Well paced and engaging, this is a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking satire.-Riva Pollard, Prospect Sierra Middle School, El Cerrito, CA\ \ \
