Mister Posterior and the Genius Child

Berkeley Trade, 2002

On line at the deli near my children's school. This other mother -- a mother holding a piece of empty Tupperware and wearing a parka made for hiking -- asks me to be treasurer of the PTA. To keep track of money. Make sure there's coffee, sugar and saccharine at meetings. Coordinate cookie-bakers at holiday time. She wants me to organize the annual rummage sale.

I tell her she would be sorry if I said Yes.

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What People Say about Mister Posterior and the Genius Child

"This funny, touching first novel captures the domestic anarchy of the 1970s…With dead-on dialogue, Jenkins deftly satirizes the narcissism of [that era] while maintaining compassion for those caught in the maelstrom...A charming debut that will have readers of Vanessa's generation chuckling with recognition."

—Publishers Weekly

"A touching, genuinely funny debut. . .A moving and sensitive story, artfully enclosed in an engaging and deceptively lighthearted narrative."

— Kirkus Reviews

"To an amazing degree, Jenkins has been able to scrub away all the obscuring layers of sentimentality and nostalgia and even irony that settle over childhood. What emerges is startling in its fresh primary colors and so true that it hurts. Mr. Posterior and the Genius Child returns readers to the lost world of their eight-year-old hearts -- scary, innocent, funny, honest, and strange."

— M.A. Harper, author of The Worst Day of My Life, So Far

"Incredibly funny and wise -- don't miss out on this unexpected pleasure!"

—Libby Schmais, author of The Perfect Elizabeth and Rescue Remedy

"With perfect details, wry humor, and just the right voice, Emily Jenkins shows us what it was really like back in the early 1970's, that era of free love and openness-where political correctness got its start, handed to us on a plate of hypocrisy. Who would have thought it could be so funny, and so sad? A wonderful debut!"

—Sarah Willis, author of Some Things That Stay

"A gentle sorcerers spell. I was sorry to reach the end, to have to waken from the funny, bittersweet dream I'd been reading."

— Maggie Estep, author of Soft Maniacs and Diary of an Emotional Idiot