bus-sized women. skyscraper-sized men. kids taller than streetlights.

Hahahahahaha. I was really surprised at this effort by Laurie Halse Anderson. Yes, the same Laurie Halse Anderson who wrote Speak and a slew of other disturbing books for young adult readers. I really liked her other work but I was shocked to read such a light-hearted tale with her name on it. I mean, we're talking attitudinal author-reader conversation, we're talking greased pole climbing contests, we're talking "badda-bing"s and "badda-boom"s, we're talking happy ending and everything. Even during the would-be sad parts of the book (pretty much every page but the last one), I couldn't really take it seriously because...well, the people obviously aren't real. I mean, Benny Antonelli's "no bigger than a peanut butter sandwich"...I swear--he even sits on one to prove the point! Even the ending is totally unrealistic. It seems Ms. Anderson does love an underdog. After being tormented his whole life by kids in his family and the neighborhood for his size (used as a ball, dressed up like a doll, tied to toy airplanes), Benny takes to climbing up high where people can't reach him. But on the day of the Third Street Annual Block Party, he's caught and misused. Even a vision-impaired aunt thinks he's a tomato and tosses him in a salad (et tu Aunt Eulalie?). But Benny's moment comes in the form of the greased pole climbing contest, the object of which, is to climb to the top of and retrieve the cheese placed there. Now of course, the Sorensons (family friends of the Antonellis) challenge Benny's family to see who can get the cheese first. And of course, all these regular-sized people fail. That's when little Benny takes his chance and puts his climbing skills to good use. Nevermind that the pole is so wide there's no way he'd have anything to grip, nevermind that he pretty much climbs up the thing like Spiderman even though it's greased, nevermind that the pole seems high enough for his tiny body to shut down due to lack of oxygen. Nevermind any of that because gosh darnit, Benny gets the cheese! And a new nickname, hence the title The Big Cheese of Third Street. I dug this book for a few reasons. For one, the illustrations (David Gordon) are cool. Something about the dull colors and how the buildings in the background aren't quite clear and how everything seems a little dingy totally screams city. But the biggest reason is because as Benny's climbing the pole, he looks down and everything looks Benny-sized from way up there or maybe like he's the giant. It was kind of like he's found a place. A very dangerous, totally impractical place. I also really liked this story because it reminded me of an episode of Laverne & Shirley (I think) that involved greased pole climbing as well that I haven't seen in, like, 10 years. It's funny how things can take you back.