The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked - Softcover

David Benjamin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091886708 ISBN 13: 9780091886707

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2003

Synopsis

Through the telling of his own madcap childhood, David Benjamin pays homage to the exuberance of young boys at play. Whether he's stalking frogs though the swamps of Tomah, Wisconsin, playing four-kid baseball with his bothersome little brother and two favourite cousins, or sneaking into the cinema to watch Saturday-afternoon Westerns, David Benjamin is the kind of kid who would have eagerly fallen in with Tom Sawyer. In relating his adventures - including one truly sorry incident with Snappy, the snapping turtle, and a run-in with a particularly fiendish squirrel - David Benjamin is by turns hysterically funny, movingly sincere, caustic, aggrieved and intrepid. Traversing the nooks and crannies of kidhood from playing fields to swimming holes, The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked captures a time and a place in twentieth-century life and magically recalls the myriad scrapes and adventures and wanderlust that once made childhood such an exhilarating enterprise.

About this title

From the Back Cover

“A boy’s way of life in the olden heartland of America, now largely gone, is expertly summoned again by a clever grown-up kid. In a narrative voice that sounds like Penrod equipped with a few cuss words, Benjamin deftly depicts the world of kids (i.e., boys). . . . We can see him, portrayed by Master Rockwell, fairly leaping off a Saturday Evening Post cover. His evocative memoir, part Patrick McManus and more Jean Shepherd, has enough fun and wit to play with either, last kid no more.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“I relished every tadpole-scented word of David Benjamin’s comic conjuring of American kidhood. If you’re looking for a sassy update of Tom Sawyer with touches of Holden Caulfield and Russell Baker, The Last Kid Picked should be the first book bought.”
—Ron Powers

“David Benjamin’s funny, quirky, entirely engaging memoir of growing up in 1950s Wisconsin is a small treasure. It’s full of the big heartbreak of tiny lives, the salty give-and-take of being a kid on the threshold, making the team but losing the faith of sweet innocence. Do yourself a favor: pull up an armchair and take a trip back there. You won’t regret the journey.”
—James Dodson,
author of Final Rounds and Faithful Travelers

“The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked is a classic comic memoir. It has a wonderful combination of instantly recognizable truths and Tom Sawyer–like tall tales. Any former child, or present one, will enjoy this book.” —James Fallows

About the Author

David Benjamin was born in Sparta, Wisconsin, in 1949 and lived in nearby Tomah until he was thirteen. He began his first novel, The Adventures of Stanley and Peggy, the Sniderman Twins, in the fourth grade. It remains unfinished. A contributor to the Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Wisconsin State Journal, Benjamin is also the author of The Joy of Sumo: A Fan’s Notes. He now lives with his wife in San Francisco and Paris.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0091886708
• ISBN 13: 9780091886707
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304