Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars

Lore & Background

The plot begins with Leonard Neeble attending Bat Masterson Junior High, where he is bullied and neglected until Alan Mendelsohn befriends him. After Alan claims Martian ancestry, both are suspended and meet Samuel Klugarsh, an occult bookstore owner who sells them a telepathy and psychokinesis kit. They later trade it for a course in Hyperstellar Archaeology and a copy of Yojimbo's Japanese-English Dictionary, which they discover enables travel into parallel realities when decoded.

Reader's Guide

The novel's significance lies in its imaginative plot and decorative detail, as noted by Ann Haskell in The New York Times Book Review. Orson Scott Card highly recommended the book in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Though no longer in print as a separate work, it remains available in the omnibus 5 Novels (1997) and as an audiobook on Pinkwater's website. The story explores themes of friendship, self-reliance, and the power of unconventional knowledge, with Leonard eventually assuming Alan's role as a school trickster after Alan emigrates to Mars.

Did You Know?

• The novel features a beverage called fleegix, similar to hot chocolate, central to the culture of the parallel Earth Waka-Waka.
• The villains Manny, Moe, and Jack are human bullies and con artists, not extraterrestrials; they control the fleegix supply and become invisible via psychokinesis.
• Alan Mendelsohn

Narrative Framework & Setting

The novel, published in 1979 by Daniel Pinkwater, centers on Leonard Neeble, a student at Bat Masterson Junior High who endures daily bullying from peers and indifference from faculty. His life transforms when he befriends Alan Mendelsohn, the titular character whose claim to Martian ancestry ignites a school-wide quarrel that lands both boys a week-long suspension. That suspension becomes the doorway into the book's more fantastical elements: they encounter Samuel Klugarsh, proprietor of an occult bookstore, who introduces them to kits promising telepathy and psychokinesis. After finding those powers underwhelming, the pair trades them for a course in Hyperstellar Archaeology—the study of vanished civilizations like Atlantis and Lemuria—alongside a copy of Yojimbo's Japanese-English Dictionary. The narrative thus pivots from grounded school life into speculative territory, with the dictionary's hidden purpose, parallel-reality travel, revealed by its author, Clarence Yojimbo.

The Waka-Waka Expedition

The novel's most elaborate set piece unfolds in a parallel Earth called Waka-Waka, where inhabitants have built a ritualistic society around consuming fleegix, a drink likened to hot chocolate. That society has been subjugated by three extraterrestrial criminals—Manny, Moe, and Jack—who monopolize the fleegix ingredient supply and enforce their rule through a deadly, invisible entity called the Wozzle. Alan's analytical mind proves decisive: he reasons that the Wozzle strikes only in bright daylight or total darkness, meaning it cannot be a separate creature but rather the three criminals themselves rendered invisible by their own psychokinetic abilities. He exposes this to the Waka-Waka locals, and together with Leonard, he employs Klugarsh's telepathic methods to coerce the trio into surrendering. The Martians are then ordered to retreat to their home world, Nafsulia, by Rolzup, the Martian High Commissioner, who was personally invited by Alan. This sequence showcases Pinkwater's blend of logical deduction with absurdist science fiction.

Critical Reception & Availability

Despite modest prose, the novel earned enthusiastic endorsements from notable voices in speculative fiction. Ann Haskell, writing in The New York Times Book Review, acknowledged that Pinkwater's writing was competent rather than transcendent, yet praised the book's imaginative plotting and decorative detail as scoring off the charts. Orson Scott Card, in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, went further, offering a strong recommendation of the work. In terms of availability, Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars is no longer issued as a standalone title. Readers can still access the story through Pinkwater's 1997 omnibus collection, 5 Novels, or in audiobook format available on the author's own website. The book's continued presence in these formats, nearly two decades after its original 1979 publication, suggests a durable if niche readership that values its particular brand of whimsical, logic-driven fantasy.

Leonard's Transformation & the Closing

The emotional arc of the novel belongs as much to Leonard as to Alan. Before their friendship, Leonard endured a hostile school environment—bullied by classmates, overlooked by teachers. Alan's companionship makes him happier and more self-assured, and after Alan and his family emigrate to Mars, Leonard absorbs the loss and then steps into a new identity. He takes over Alan's role as the school's irreverent trickster, pursues independent study, surprises teachers during lessons, and opts for an alternative gym class built around hatha yoga rather than conventional athletics. The book closes on a warm, forward-looking note: Leonard receives a letter from Alan inviting him to visit on Mars. This ending reframes the entire adventure not as a one-time escapade but as the beginning of an ongoing, cross-planetary friendship, leaving the reader with the sense that Leonard's growth is far from finished.