Forward, by Paul Bagdon (novelist)

Dan Lukiv must be a kid. Dusty and cranky old adults like the rest of us who worry about bills and the new noise in the car and what the boss will think of the latest project simply don't have the sensibilities-the spark-to realize that creatures who smell strange are funny to young people, and that time travel, teachers named Miss Snapdragon, and idiosyncratic species called Quirks and Quibils are the very stuff of laughter, adventure, drama-and fun.

Quibils and Quirks is a precisely orchestrated chaos of sight gags, weird and wholly engaging characters and creatures, puns and word play, pratfalls and slapstick-and there's a genuine story melded into the pages, as well. The dialogue sings-and gurgles, snuffs, yelps, belches, uluates, and snivels, too. The laughs are frequent, as they must be in a work such as Quibils and Quirks, and in my mind, it's here that Dan Lukiv excels. Because he's a kid himself (I refuse to believe otherwise), his humor is fresh and innocent; the convoluted logic expressed by the critters and characters is hilarious without the taint of guile or innuendo that seems to be so pervasive in current YA efforts. The scenes and situations sparkle because of their incongruity, their lack of adult parameters-and, in many cases because they reflect the stolid silliness of the adult world in a Lukiv-created, wonderfully irregular mirror.

Who is Dan Lukiv? Beats me, but I'd have to describe him as Milne with a case of the giggles, Beatrix Potter on hallucinogens, or Proust with a lobotomy. But, whoever the guy is, he knows what he's doing, and Quibils and Quirks establishes that.

This is a must-read, not only for the intended audience, but for the few of us oldies who haven't forgotten how to laugh. We need to hear more from Dan Lukiv-soon.

Comments from kids:

"I like all the characters in the story because they are funny and I like funny people. That's why I like [Mr. Lukiv's] story sooo much. I like the boy [Hooper] with the cauliflower ears. He's funny. I also like the lady with the red swirly hair [Hooper's mum]. I like the part when Mr. Hamburger almost faints because of the awful smell that comes from the quibils. I think the quibils and [people] should try to become friends, not enemies...There isn't anything I don't like in the story because I like it all. I love [this] story."

"I really like the [time travel]. I think it's terrific."

"Very well-written."

"It's funny and I think it's easy to understand....The time machine is awesome (I like writing stories about time machines). I think it is funny that the mayor [becomes] a baby."

"The coolest book I've ever read!"

"I've read lots of children's books, but I've never read anything like this before."

Other comments:

"This is great!...I've been in the newspaper business for 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this come across my desk just for kids....We're breaking new ground here," Jerry MacDonald, The Quesnel Cariboo Observer.

The author

Dan Lukiv, published in 19 countries, is a poet, novelist, columnist, short story and article writer, and independent education researcher (hermeneutic phenomenology). As a creative writer, he apprenticed with Canada's Professor Robert Harlow (recipient of the George Woodcock Achievement award for an outstanding literary career), the USA's Paul Bagdon (Spur Award finalist for Best Original Paperback), and England's D. M. Thomas (recipient of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature, Orwell Prize [biography], Los Angeles Fiction Prize, and Cholmondeley award for poetry). He attended The University of British Columbia (creative writing department), the acclaimed Humber School for Writers (poetry writing program), and Writer's Digest University (novel writing program).