Thursday, January 20, 2005
DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK!
Oh yeah. I just had to follow that link in the post below to M. E. Kerr's web site, where I came across the title that drove me nuts for years: DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK! I always remember it just that way, all caps. I think on the copy I had (a Scholastic edition, perhaps, although I can't imagine that title making it past the Scholastic propriety cops who were still reprinting stuff like My Sister Mike in the late 70s) it was written in yellow letters, on a brick wall. Catchy cover, awesome title.
The reason it drove me nuts is that I saw it and didn't understand it. I didn't know what "smack" was, and thought maybe it was a novel about hockey with an onomatopeic title: Dinky Hocker Shoots! Smack! Then there was the name itself: who's Dinky? Boy or girl? Is that really somebody's name?
After several years of looking at the book longingly--I can only imagine that I must have intuited that my mother would freak out if she caught me reading it, or maybe ask me to explain the title or something (I'm sure she wouldn't have known what smack was either)--I finally read it. I must have been in at least 9th grade, because the guy in the book whose name I can never remember reminds me of my friend John, who I didn't meet until then. Just the other day I was remembering him (the character, not John) saying to Susan ("Dinky"), "You're better than you think you are, ta dum, ta dum, ta dum."
I still haven't read the source of that, which I seem to recall was a Vonnegut novel, but every once in a while I think of it, and it makes me feel better.
The thing about M. E. Kerr was always the titles, though. Yes, her novels were about things that my mother just refused to talk about: sex, weight, drugs, Nazis. But it was the titles that drew me in: If I Love You, Am I Trapped Forever? and I'll Love You When You're More Like Me. Only Paul Zindel ever did more provocative and intriguing YA titles. Titles that just make you want to read the book to figure out what the hell it means.
Oh yeah. I just had to follow that link in the post below to M. E. Kerr's web site, where I came across the title that drove me nuts for years: DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK! I always remember it just that way, all caps. I think on the copy I had (a Scholastic edition, perhaps, although I can't imagine that title making it past the Scholastic propriety cops who were still reprinting stuff like My Sister Mike in the late 70s) it was written in yellow letters, on a brick wall. Catchy cover, awesome title.
The reason it drove me nuts is that I saw it and didn't understand it. I didn't know what "smack" was, and thought maybe it was a novel about hockey with an onomatopeic title: Dinky Hocker Shoots! Smack! Then there was the name itself: who's Dinky? Boy or girl? Is that really somebody's name?
After several years of looking at the book longingly--I can only imagine that I must have intuited that my mother would freak out if she caught me reading it, or maybe ask me to explain the title or something (I'm sure she wouldn't have known what smack was either)--I finally read it. I must have been in at least 9th grade, because the guy in the book whose name I can never remember reminds me of my friend John, who I didn't meet until then. Just the other day I was remembering him (the character, not John) saying to Susan ("Dinky"), "You're better than you think you are, ta dum, ta dum, ta dum."
I still haven't read the source of that, which I seem to recall was a Vonnegut novel, but every once in a while I think of it, and it makes me feel better.
The thing about M. E. Kerr was always the titles, though. Yes, her novels were about things that my mother just refused to talk about: sex, weight, drugs, Nazis. But it was the titles that drew me in: If I Love You, Am I Trapped Forever? and I'll Love You When You're More Like Me. Only Paul Zindel ever did more provocative and intriguing YA titles. Titles that just make you want to read the book to figure out what the hell it means.
permalink posted by The Vintage Reader @ 10:09 PM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
