A humorous coming-of-age middle-grade novel set in 1960s Florida.
Battling obxious siblings, sunburns, and a corporate millionaire, Norman
is determined to help an old comedian save his career.
It's the winter of 1965. Norman Fishbein is enduring not only a cold
winter but also the usual torments and annoyances from his two older
brothers. When Norman wins a thousand dollars in the
Count-the-Doozy-Dots Contest, his parents let him choose how to spend
it, strongly suggesting a new car is what the family needs. But Norman
decides what his family really needs is their first vacation that
doesn't mean camping in a tent -- a trip to Miami Beach.
A snowstorm almost wrecks their plans, but in the end Norman gets his
first plane ride (with both brothers air-sick on either side of him).
Miami strikes him as a paradise -- warm weather, palm trees, beaches,
and ocean. They stay in luxury at the Royal Palm Hotel, owned by the
mysterious millionaire Herbert Spitzer.
One day at the pool, Norman spots an old man in a black suit, who his
father tells him is a once-famous comedian named Mort Ziff. (Norman's
father thought that Mort Ziff had died years ago.) Holding onto the
remains of his career, Mort Ziff is performing every night in the hotel
dining room. A chance meeting begins an unusual friendship between
Norman and the old comedian. But after hearing that Mort Ziff has been
fired, to be replaced by The Centipedes, a pop group imitating the
Beatles, Norman takes matters into his own hands, resolving to save
Mort's job and, in the process, coming to realize an innner strength he
didn't know he had.
