The Man in the Ceiling

When I was in maybe fourth grade I read a book called The Man in the Ceiling, by Jules Feiffer. I only read it the one time and I've never seen another copy but I can honestly say it's one of the five books that changed my life the most. It reminds me a lot of some of Daniel Pinkwater's young adult novels, but it deals with things like artistic freedom and failure in ways you don't ever see in children's literature.

The other day I got a hankering to reread it so I ordered it online and it is every bit as good as I remembered. Feiffer's illustrations are marvelous, as you would expect if you've read The Phantom Tollbooth, and the ending is still so extraordinarily right. Read this book. Tell fourth-graders of your acquaintance to read this book. It's fantastic.