Nowen N. Particular

ot bad, but really could have been better. An interesting concept: new family in new town, and the new town is quite eccentric. But the author left his pulpit showing. He informs in the introduction that one of his purposes is to promote diversity (something I support wholeheartedly) then proceeds to beat you over the head with it for 352 pp. Perhaps it will be mellowed out in forthcoming sequels, but for now its just too much. Our kids are smart enough not to need too heavy of a pounding on this and other issues.… (mehr)

I have to admit that I'd never heard of this book before I found it online. I read the description and thought it sounded like something good that I would like to read and than could share it with my 9 year-old nephew. He loves to read and this sounded like his kind of thing. It's a really fun book.

Boomtown - Book One, Chang's Famous Fireworks Factory (stay away from the chickens) by Nowen N. Particular is first of all, quite a mouthful. And at 323 pages for a young adult read, it's quite a handful. But it's a good handful. Inside the front and back covers are maps of Boomtown and throughout the book and many old style black and white photos, line drawings and diagrams.They add an extra fun element and sense of authenticity to the story.

The story is told by Reverend Arthur Button who decided to move his family of five from the city in California to a small rural town in Washington in 1949. He accepted the job of pastor to enjoy the quiet life with friendly neighbors, a house with a yard and snow at Christmas. They found friendly but it was anything but quiet there. Their new home was also the location of a famous firework's factory. Fortunately the people who lived there loved to blow stuff up. And the Buttons became famous for blowing something up before they even reached their new house.

An unexpected stop on the way into town led to a "small" explosion at Chang's factory. A test went wrong, with some help from the Button children, and the fire was enormous. But in a place where everything is connected to the factory, where even the streets have names like Dynamite Drive and TNT Trail, this was just another experiment. Another day at work. Everyone took it in stride and welcomed them with open arms.

The Buttons feel right are home and immersed themselves in the charm of the small town. This was a place where community worked together as equals despite their varied backgrounds. They treasured their families, and worked hard. They were good people but they were also odd. Every day was a new adventure and the world was their playground. And they had a lot of fireworks to celebrate with. They weren't without their problems though. A mysterious string of robberies began occurring in the area. The Buttons also learned that there appeared to be some sort of "curse" on the reverends of the past. They had either died or disappeared. This was one tradition that Arthur Button would be happy not to pass on.

There are some aspects of the story that I wonder if they will be too complicated for the younger audience to understand but I don't think it really takes away from the overall story. The ending wasn't what I hoped for and I wonder how it will affect the next book in the series. Overall I found it to be a clever and entertaining story. The characters were interesting and I hope they will appear again in future books. There is also mystery behind the identity of the author. On the back cover is a blurb about the author traveling in disguise and keeping his location a secret. This is reminescent of Lemony Snickett and the Series of Unfortunate Events books. You can visit Nowan N. Particular and his Boomtown friends at www.boomtown.com.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson books for this copy.… (mehr)

“Boomtown turned out to be a place where everybody’s favorite thing to do was to blow stuff up. …They valued education more than money, worked hard, stayed married, loved their children, cared for the environment, and honored the heritage of other cultures. You may ask, ‘How is that possible?’ I see your point. A place like that can’t be real. But it should be.” - From the “Introduction” by Nowen N. Particular

Boomtown, by the mysterious Nowen N. Particular, takes place in the fictional town of Boomtown, Washington in the 1940’s. The story is told by the Reverend Button, newly arrived with his family to minister over the Boomtown Church. After arriving, he discovers two things that upset his composure: first, that the people of Boomtown are one and all eccentrics who love blowing things up; second, that all the previous ministers of Boomtown Church (some twenty four of them) died in bizarre accidents after only a year or two of ministering.

The story is almost an ensemble piece, focusing chapter-to-chapter on the individual stories of the inhabitants of Boomtown. We hear the story of Chang, the town’s founder and creator of the fireworks factory that gave the town its name; Walt, the Butcher turned Barber; Mabel, proprietress of the eponymous Mabel’s Diner (”Terrible Coffee, Worse Service”); and the Hopontop Indians.

Right off the bat, I would like to say that I essentially enjoyed reading this book. However, I did find myself wondering if it would really hold the attention of the “tween” audience that it is apparently aimed at. Yes, it is colorful and cartoony and has lots of crazy happenstances. All well and good.

But the story is told by the father. Typically, a book of this type would be from the perspective of one of his children - and, indeed, they had more adventures than he did although (as promised) his life was endangered on several occasions. I mean, I did enjoy the book - but I can’t help but wonder if I would have enjoyed it just as much at age 10, or if I would have gotten impatient with the adult main character and wanted to see things from the kids’ viewpoints instead. Even though many things that happened in the book were intentionally very outlandish, I couldn’t escape the feeling that this was a grownup telling a story to another grownup. I don’t have any kids available to question and see if that approach works or doesn’t work, so I’ll just have to leave this issue open-ended. But, what if the book Peter Pan was told entirely from the perspective of the Darling parents? It would have been a rather sad, depressing, colorless story.

The author stated in the introduction (quoted above) that he was “surprised” by the “ethnic variety” in the town. Okay, I get that this is supposed to be a Utopia of sorts; the author’s idea of the ideal town where everybody respects everybody else. But I’m also reminded of a warning on the beginning of the recently released Vol. 1 of Fleischer’s utterly wonderful Popeye cartoons:

"The animated shorts you are about to see are a product of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic, sexist and racial stereotypes that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.... These animated shorts are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed."

(Emphasis on the final line.) Yes, the author did mention something to the effect that some people had some issues with a mixed-race child who becomes involved in the story. Yes, the author did take pains to explain how the town had a Japanese mayor just a couple years after the end of WWII, when most Japanese Americans were still viewed with suspicion across the USA.

Yet, I see the main character casually accepting things like the fact that the area has a female, Hispanic circuit court judge (unusual for a small rural town even in this day and age) without any question whatsoever (despite the fact this is supposed to take place in the 1940’s) to be pushing it just a bit. Yes, I know this is essentially a cartoon world, but I think it could have borne a few more comments that this was very unusual in that time and place.

However, perhaps the biggest problem I had with this book was the ending - and I will try to explain my problem without ruining it for any potential readers. The book spent a lot of time getting us used to a certain set of characters (the amusing cover announces that this is “Book One” so I’m assuming that more are planned) - and yet, this set of characters simply ditches the town at the end. I found that rather disconcerting as well as going against a lot of what they’d been setting up in the book… it was like all the lessons that had been learned about acceptance were simply discarded. I’m assuming that the next book would simply have to deal with a wholly different set of characters, which I would find even more disconcerting. I liked these characters - I wanted to spend more time with them.

And I would also like to point out that despite this book being told by a minister (and being published by a Christian publishing company) I thought the religious message, if there was one, was a touch on the covert side. Perhaps the author was aiming at that to avoid “preaching” to the kids… but, really, if I’m buying a book from a religious publishing company, I kind of expect there to be a clear-cut religious theme…

I’m afraid this is going to be a half-and-half sort of review… because I essentially enjoyed reading it. I thought Boomtown sounded like a nice place to live in spite of the fact that it had no Catholics. I was entertained by most of the colorful characters - and wouldn’t want to live in an idyllic small town where everybody loves everybody else and enjoys setting off fireworks?

But, as I said, I had issues with both story elements and fact that we are getting everything from the perspective of the stodgy father character (which as an adult I had no problem with - but which as a kid, whom this story was ostensibly aimed at, I might have been bored).

So what is my final word? As I originally stated, I essentially enjoyed reading this book. I would recommend it to other adults who are looking for light, colorful reading and enjoy escapism - but I don’t think I can whole-heartedly recommend it for kids.… (mehr)