Last Updated on May 10, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 102

Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars, conjures two boys out of ink marks who become involved in an amazing adventure, a story so amusing and laughter-filled that it is one of Pinkwater's funniest books. It begins with the mundane and ends in the extraordinary. A "portly" kid does not get along with his school mates, but school becomes more fun when he is befriended by an unusual young man; then he visits a strange bookstore and unleashes the forces of the cosmos. Pinkwater, as he does in many of his novels, invites us to look beyond the ordinary and discover the amazing.