Recommended for anyone interested in the life of a hunter or hunting dog.
A grouse-hunting dog tells his and his master’s stories in this novel for all ages.
This tale about grouse hunting and grouse hunters is told through the unique perspective of Briar, a bird dog. After his death of old age, Briar explains that he became enlightened. He now understands the life he just led and can share that experience with others. As a result, Briar recounts the life of his owner, referred to only as Master throughout the book, as well as Master’s friends and family and the other bird dogs that made up Master’s hunting party. According to Briar, his master married young and took up hunting to support his new family with extra food. Soon he became a great hunter, graduating from hunting squirrels to grouse. He needed a few very special dogs, called bird dogs or grouse dogs, to work with him. Briar’s dad, Chief, and Master’s previous dog, Spot, as well as many other special dogs, are mentioned before Briar enters the picture. The shifting time periods can grow confusing: Briar mentions his own son in one chapter and then talks about Spot in the next. In addition, new characters—both human and canine—appear and disappear from chapter to chapter. The specifics about hunting, the natural world and the hunters’ culture, however, ground the book in authentic details. Black-and-white photographs, those taken by Master during his photography phase, supplement the text toward the end. These photos illustrate things already brought to life through words, from the woods Briar enjoyed so much to a grouse darting from the brush. The lives of the dogs and hunters come well into focus—all unique characters who animate this special world.
Recommended for anyone interested in the life of a hunter or hunting dog.Pub Date: May 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1300699460
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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