Jerry Seinfeld credited Jean Shepherd as an major inspiration, and I can see why. I LOVE Jean Shepherd's sense of humor and literary style -- he leaves no comedic arrow unslung, and aims quite a few at himself. This book had me laughing, uncontrolled and out loud, many times. It is perfect reading pretty much anytime EXCEPT late at night if you've got children. Why? Because you may end up waking them. Then they want to know why Mommy is crying ("Because I'm laughing so hard, honey.."), what's so funny, etc...and you are forced to stop reading in order to explain things and corral them back to bed!

Not a review but I just wanted to make note of something. He referred to being in grade 4b. I haven’t heard of that since I was in elementary school in Indianapolis. Some kids started halfway through the school year. Therefore every grade was divided into A and B.

It was OK. Not sure why my 8th grade English teacher loved it so much, but at least now I've finally read it after hunting for it for more than a quarter-century.

A little racist, likely because of its setting and time period -- this was a childhood favorite of mine, and other than, you know, the racism, it holds up well.

A great, light summer read. Many parts are laugh-out-loud funny, while the overall effect is nostalgic, even though it's clearly the generation before mine. After you read this, go re-read "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" by the same author, then, for a similar book for our generation, read Bill Bryson's "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid."