I just had one of those only-in-the-Internet-age moments.
Note: the cropping job on this photo is not my doing, but fits the book pretty well.
For some reason I decided to look up “Gone to be Snakes Now.” The effect of reading this book could best be likened to hyperspace traveling in Hitchhikers, which was itself likened to being drunk. “What’s wrong with being drunk? Ask a glass of water.”
So I did some Googling and discovered that the author Neal Bell:
A) appears to be alive and well and living not that far from me in North Carolina.
B) also wrote for Knots Landing and All My Children.
That’s sort of like learning that Sun Ra wrote Boogie Oogie Oogie.
I also found Bell’s email address and office phone number. Should I call him up and ask him to explain page 83?
Filed under: kidlit
I read the same book this year, I didn’t know what he was on about on page 83 nor through the entire book. Something about snakes, giant gas stations, vague aliens and a dramatic play at the end. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars on Amazon.