Seventeen-year-old Calvin's first baby gift was a stuffed tiger named Hobbes, his best friend is named Susie, and he was born the very same day Bill Watterson's last Calvin and Hobbes comic was published. It's little wonder, then, that he thinks he is the blond-haired Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes come to life. And that would also explain why Hobbes the tiger is actually talking to him.
Canadian novelist and National Book Award finalist Martine Leavitt (Heck Superhero; My Book of Life by Angel) skillfully reflects the daily agony of a funny, charming, creative, hyper-intelligent young man who just wants to be normal, not a guy who talks to a tiger, not a guy who's diagnosed with schizophrenia. Calvin decides that if he can persuade Bill Watterson to write just one more comic--one with no Hobbes, and where Calvin is 17 and healthy--then he will be cured. And, if he walks from his home in Leamington, Ontario, across the frozen top of Lake Erie to where Watterson lives, in Cleveland, Ohio, the cartoonist won't be able to refuse his request. Calvin's childhood (and only) friend, Susie, decides to join him.
Their treacherous, icy journey blurs into a dreamlike, profoundly romantic, odyssey. They talk about beauty, bullying, overpaid athletes, poverty, war, zebra mussels, injustice... and the possibility of changing the world. But to do that they need to survive. Leavitt's Calvin is a hopeful, exquisite and exciting exploration of the human mind--both well and sick--and the slippery nature of reality. --Karin Snelson, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness