The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death

Originally published in 1982, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death is a young adult novel written by Daniel Pinkwater and features alienated teenagers, avocado-obsessed mad scientists, and a plot to replace all of the world's realtors with aliens.

Plot summary

The story is told from the viewpoint of Walter Galt, a teenager on the verge of dying from boredom at Genghis Khan High School, until he meets Winston Bongo, another suffering student and the self-proclaimed inventor of "snarking out" (which involves sneaking out of your house late at night, going to the movie theater, hanging out, and sneaking back home without getting caught). They usually go to an all-night movie theater, The Snark. While snarking out, they meet the usual assortment of oddballs, such as Ms. Bentley Saunders Harrison Matthews, a.k.a. Rat, and places, from Blueberry Park to Lower North Aufzoo Street to Beanbender's Beer Garden. Along the way, they help foil the scheme of the world's greatest criminal genius and his gang of trained orangutans.

Availability

The book, while out-of-print in its original form, can be found in his 1997 omnibus, 5 Novels.

The book was followed by a 1984 sequel, The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror, which can be found in his 2000 omnibus, 4 Fantastic Novels. A third novel, I Snarked with a Zombie was planned but never written.