Although the new book from Toronto author Cary Fagan lists a very narrow age range, the only prerequisite for enjoying Mr. Karp’s Last Glass is an ability to read, whatever your age.

Eleven-year-old Randolph, who laments that he has “a name used only by characters in old black-and-white movies,” is a serious collector who disdains boxes of popsicle sticks and shelves of tiny glass animals. Over the years, he has moved from collecting stones, snowglobes, and shoehorns to beer-bottle caps, writing instruments, and, more conceptually, words. (Randolph’s narration is interspersed with dictionary definitions of new additions to his word collection.)

Randolph’s parents, important but peripheral to his life, fall on hard times and have to take in a lodger, Mr. Karp, who turns out to be the “second-foremost collector” of water in the northeast. He has samples from the 1980 Olympic swimming pool in Moscow, Jackie Robinson’s water bottle, and Sarah Bernhardt’s bathwater, but acquiring a sample of melted snow from Napoleon’s hat will make Mr. Karp the top collector.

Mr. Karp’s Last Glass is silly, but in the way that Roald Dahl’s stories are silly. There is an internal consistency and believability that will draw readers along, most often with a smile on their faces. It is also timeless, avoiding slang or situations that will be dated in a few years, and Randolph is a delightfully self-deprecating character.  

Scattered throughout are a half-dozen full-page black-and-white drawings by Turkish-born French illustrator Selçuk Demirel that perfectly capture the tone of the story. Emphasizing the similarities to Dahl, Demirel’s drawings recall those of Quentin Blake, Dahl’s illustrator.

In Mr. Karp’s Last Glass, Cary Fagan has created an entertaining, imaginative, and fun story that will appeal to a wide audience for many years.