STARRED REVIEW
August 2000

Review

By Roddy Doyle
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Want a book that will have kids, no matter what age, giggling and laughing out loud? Roddy Doyle, author of the New York Times best seller A Star Called Henry, has penned just the book.

The Giggler Treatment begins as Mister Mack walks to the train station. A bird sings. A breeze carrying breakfast smells bacon, eggs, frog’s legs, and cabbage only adds to Mister Mack’s happiness. His children’s kisses fresh on his cheek, he’s on his way to a job he loves: biscuit (cookie to Americans) tester in a biscuit factory, on his favorite day of the year: figroll day. He’s also heading straight for the Giggler Treatment.

What is the Giggler Treatment, you ask? Well, it’s what Gigglers do to adults who are rude, dishonest, or mean to children. The Gigglers are baby-sized creatures whose fur changes colors to blend with their surroundings. They are always listening, ready at a moment’s notice to inflict the Giggler Treatment on any deserving adult, until the adult begins treating children fairly again.

How do they go about setting up this Treatment? They enlist the help of Rover, a talking dog who has made a handsome profit from his affiliation with the Gigglers. If it seems as though I am digressing, I’m not, and neither does Doyle as the narrator gives asides seeming to go nowhere but always adding suspense as Mister Mack meanders closer and closer to his Treatment.

Only there’s a problem. Mister Mack does not deserve the Treatment. Will the Gigglers, Rover, Mister Mack’s children Robbie, Jimmy, and baby Kayla and his wife, Billie Jean Fleetwood-Mack, who is well on her way to climbing the highest mountain in every country, be able to stop the ever-approaching Treatment from happening? As they make their way to Mister Mack and he makes his way to the Treatment, readers will learn the history of the Giggler Treatment, listen to musings from a fish-hating seagull, learn why Mister Mack dreads cream cracker nightmares, lose track of chapter numbers (but not titles: one is named after Elvis Presley), and compare American slang to Irish, all while wondering where it’s all going to end.

Well, I can tell you where it’s going to end: in a fit of giggles.

Jamie Whitfield has managed to keep the Gigglers at bay, despite having a teaching career that spans 20 years and thousands of children.

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The Giggler Treatment

The Giggler Treatment

By Roddy Doyle
Arthur A. Levine
ISBN 9780439162999

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