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    The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis
    The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis
    The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

    By Barbara O'Connor

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Nothing ever happens in Fayette, South Carolina. That's what Popeye thinks, anyway. His whole life, everything has just been boring, boring, boring. But things start to look up when the Jewells' Holiday Rambler makes a wrong turn and gets stuck in the mud, trapping Elvis and his five rowdy siblings in Fayette for who knows how long. Popeye has never met anyone like Elvis Jewell. He's so good at swearing he makes Uncle Dooley look like a harp-strumming angel, and he says "So what?" like he really means it. Then something curious comes floating down the creek—a series of boats with secret messages—and it sends Popeye and Elvis into the big world on the hunt for a small adventure.

    With a healthy helping of humor and the signature Southern charm that has captivated children and critics alike, Barbara O'Connor's newest tale is a heartwarming look at the joy that can come out of being a Royal Rule Breaker, and learning to find one's own adventures.

    This title has Common Core connections.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 15, 2009
    ISBN9781429947923
    Author

    Barbara O'Connor

    Barbara O’Connor was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. She has written many award-winning books for children, including the New York Times–bestselling Wish, Wonderland, How to Steal a Dog, Greetings from Nowhere, and Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia.

    Read more from Barbara O'connor

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    Reviews for The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

    3.5/5

    10 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      fun back-woods romp
    • 4/5
      already ordered... look at all those awards, but no Newbery... Newbery surely does emphasize historical fiction... If I ever finish the Newbery project in the Childrens' Books group, I'll have to choose another award to cover....

      --------------------------

      A small book, a small adventure... but a big impact. The other reviewers are speaking from the heart - I won't try to convince you to read this but refer you to them, instead. I will comment only on the wonderful way O'Connor gives word nerds their fix. The very first vocabulary word, vicissitude, is one I've never bothered to look up, and so didn't realize until now just what it means. And there are insults, cussing, rhymes, puzzles, and metaphors galore. Not to mention plot, setting, characters, etc. How O'Connor manages to get so much accomplished in such a short book astounds me. I'll look for more by her.

      [Her] wrath still hovered in the air like a swarm of hornets.""
    • 3/5
      Small-town South Carolina life is pretty routine for Popeye until he discovers the silver RV camper stuck in the ditch, and meets the family living there: Elvis and all his brothers and sisters. Popeye and Elvis seek a "small adventure" apart from the little ones and find it in the mysterious Yoo-Hoo carton boats floating down the stream. Who's making these boats, where do they come from, and what's the meaning of the strange notes attached? Barbara O'Connor brings the rural South alive on the page once again.
    • 3/5
      Nothing against the writing, or whatever. I just didn't feel like there was much going on at all, even though there was a small adventure and boats with cryptic notes inside. The "small Southern town in America" setting and feel of the book was difficult for my EL410 students to digest. However, even though at first my students thought the book was boring, they soon became interested in the "adventure," some of them going so far as to finish reading the book early.
    • 5/5
      Oh good gracious - this is one of the loveliest and most wonderful children's books I have had the pleasure to read aloud to my daughter. I want to recommend this book to everyone I know with kids - especially if you have boys. Sublime! I dreaded the turn of the last page.
    • 4/5
      Popeye is bored. Life in a small Georgia town, provides no meaningful distractions for this little boy. Besides the new word he learns each week from his aunt Velma, little else happens to keep Popeye occupied. That is, until a mobile home winds up stuck on the road in his town. Inside that mobile home is Elvis, and a bit of excitement. The two boys try to find excitement, when one day, they spy something that will keep them occupied for a little while.
    • 5/5
      Perfect little gem of a book. Rural south with dysfunctional families and wonderful vocabulary words dropped into the story. Never knew why I wanted to know English royalty in order!
    • 3/5
      2010 Maine Student Book Award Nominee

      Cute, but not life-changing. I enjoyed all the vocabulary words.
    • 4/5
      This book will be one of my best summer-reading suggestions! Set in a small town, the story reminds me of growing up without every hour of my little-kid day scheduled with play dates and camps and organized activities. These 2 oddly named boys break the rules of "staying close to home" and find marvelous adventures. I hope the same for all kids this summer!
    • 3/5
      The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis A humorous and folksy, Tom Sawyer-like tale, about one-eyed Popeye growing up in South Carolina and his adventures with the new kid, Elvis, (Henry) who comes into town in his parent’s Holiday Rambler motor home. Yoo-hoo boats with mysterious words aboard intrigue the boys’ and their new “Spit and Swear” club. Southern dialect throughout the story, along with “vocabulary words” (ie: divert, qualm, and livid) help young readers learn new words and help propel this adventure tale of where the “dead dogs live.”
    • 4/5
      Popeye, so named because his uncle Dooley had accidently shot his eye out with a B.B gun when he was three, is bored. His life consists of staring at the heart shaped stain on his bedroom ceiling and listening to his grandma Velma recite the kings and queens of England to keep her mind sharp. He lives with her because his parents are absent from his life. Occasionally his mother pops in for a visit. Popeye sees his life as boring until the day the Holiday Rambler gets stuck in the mud near his house. That is the day that he meets Elvis and they set out to have a small adventure while they wait for the motor home to get unstuck from the mud. Setting off through the woods toward the creek they find a boat made out of a Yoo-Hoo carton. Their new adventure is to find out where they come from and why. This was a cute book. Growing up in the country I often found things to be boring on rainy days. Like Popeye's grandmother, my mother always wanted us within hollerin' distance. It was funny how something as simple as finding out where the boats came from could be considered an adventure. I look forward to recommending this book.
    • 4/5
      In Fayette, South Carolina, the highlight of Popeye's summer is learning vocabulary words with his grandmother until a motor home gets stuck nearby and Elvis, the oldest boy living inside, joins Popeye in finding the source of strange boats floating down the creek.
    • 4/5
      Popeye's summer stretches out before him, stuck in the house with his grandmother and his no-account uncle while the rain pours outside. But when the rain clears and Popeye discovers a motor home stuck in the mud outside his house, Popeye meets Elvis and they decide to have a small adventure together. It's very well-written, made me laugh out loud in parts, and managed to pull off serious bits without veering into Depressing. The story's a quiet one and it reminded me of The Penderwicks for boys.

    Book preview

    The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis - Barbara O'Connor

    1

    DRIP.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    Popeye opened his eye and looked up at the heart-shaped stain on the ceiling of his bedroom. Rusty water squeezed out of the hole in the peeling plaster and dropped onto the foot of his bed.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    Drip.

    It had been raining for over a week.

    All day.

    Every day.

    The stain on the ceiling used to be a tiny circle. Popeye had watched it grow a little more each day.

    He got out of bed and nudged Boo with his foot. The old dog lifted his head and looked up at Popeye, his sagging skin drooping down over his sad, watery eyes.

    Still raining, Popeye said.

    Boo’s big, heavy head flopped back down on the floor, and he let out a long, low dog groan.

    Popeye padded across the cracked linoleum floor of the hallway and into the bathroom. He splashed water on his face and ran his wet fingers over his head. The stubble of his new summer buzz cut felt scratchy, like a cat’s tongue. His white scalp showed through his pale blond hair.

    He examined his teeth in the mirror.

    They looked clean.

    He rubbed his good eye.

    Then he rubbed his bad eye. The one that was always squinted shut thanks to his uncle Dooley.

    Popeye hadn’t always been Popeye. Before he was three years old, he had been Henry.

    But when he was three, his uncle Dooley had placed a small green crab apple on the fence post out back and turned to his girlfriend and said, Watch this, Charlene.

    Then he had walked back twenty paces, like a gunslinger, taken aim with his Red Ryder BB gun, and pulled the trigger.

    Dooley was not a very good aim.

    Charlene was not impressed.

    When the BB hit Henry square in the eye, she had screamed bloody murder and carried on so much that when Popeye’s grandmother, Velma, came running out of the house to see what all the fuss was about, she had thought it was Charlene who’d been shot in the eye.

    Popeye had been Popeye ever since.

    And Charlene was long gone. (Which hadn’t bothered Dooley one little bit ‘cause there were plenty more where she came from.)

    Popeye went up the hall to the kitchen, his bare feet stirring up little puffs of dust on the floor. Velma didn’t care much about keeping a clean house. She mainly cared about not cracking up.

    You get old, you crack up, she told Popeye when she couldn’t find her reading glasses or opened the closet door and forgot why.

    While Popeye made toast with powdered sugar on top, Velma sat at the kitchen table with her eyes closed, reciting the kings and queens of England in chronological order.

    Edward V, Richard III, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I . . .

    Popeye knew that when she got to the last one, Elizabeth II, she would probably start all over again.

    Egbert, Ethelwulf, Ethelbald, Ethelbert . . .

    Reciting the kings and queens of England in chronological order was exercising Velma’s brain and keeping her from cracking up.

    But sometimes, Popeye worried that it wasn’t working.

    This was a big worry.

    Popeye needed Velma to not crack up because no one else in his family was very good at taking care of things.

    Not his father, who lived up in Chattanooga and sold smoke-damaged rugs out of the back of a pickup truck.

    Not his mother, who came and went but never told anybody where she came from or where she went to.

    And definitely not his uncle Dooley, who lived in a rusty trailer in the backyard and sometimes worked at the meatpacking plant and sometimes sold aluminum siding and sometimes watched TV all day.

    Popeye’s grandmother, Velma, was the only one good at taking care of things.

    Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II. Velma opened her eyes. Instead of starting all over again with Egbert, she shuffled over to the kitchen counter and poured herself a cup of coffee.

    Hey there, burrhead, she said, running her hand over Popeye’s fuzzy buzz cut.

    Hey.

    What’re you gonna do today?

    Popeye shrugged.

    This dern rain is driving me nuts, she said, stirring a heaping spoonful of sugar into her coffee.

    Popeye stared out at the muddy yard. A waterfall of rust-colored rainwater poured off the edge of the metal roof of the shed out back and made a river. The river snaked its way down the gravel driveway and into the drainage ditch that ran along the side of the road. The ditch was nearly overflowing. Every now and then, soda cans or plastic bags floated by in front of the house.

    Boo ambled into the kitchen and ate a scrap of toast off the floor under the table, his tail wagging in slow

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