Released: Sept. 24, 2013
"A decent-enough adventure, but not one for the ages. (Adventure. 9-12)"
Released: Oct. 15, 2012
"Breathless and exciting, but no more substantial than smoke from a spy's revolver. (Thriller. 11-14)"
In the third book of a spy-and-terrorist–jammed series, breathless pacing helps to minimize several flaws.
Read full book review >
Released: March 1, 2012
"A wild, roller coaster ride despite the credibility-stretching ending. (Adventure. 11-13)"
The third and concluding volume in Smith's breakneck Storm Runners trilogy shifts the scene from a circus' devastated winter quarters in hurricane-wracked Florida to the ominously active Mexican volcano Popocatepetl.
Read full book review >
ADVENTURE
Released: Sept. 1, 2011
"A high-velocity page-turner, for all that it's only a segment of a larger arc. (Adventure. 11-13)"
Family members separated in a Florida hurricane struggle to get back together, but the waters are rising fast and big cats are on the loose in this sequel to
Storm Runners (2011).
Read full book review >
ANIMALS
Released: March 1, 2011
"Since they are left sharing a barn with an elephant who is about to give birth as a vicious escaped leopard roams outside, readers are really going to want to find out what happens next. (Adventure. 11-13)"
Readers will really feel blasts of wind, water and flying debris in this disaster tale—at least until the narrative cuts off in mid-howl.
Read full book review >
Released: Aug. 1, 2008
"An interactive website is scheduled to launch with the book's release. (Fiction. 10-14)"
ANIMALS
Released: Sept. 1, 2007
"An adventure tale that is also a family story—as is Smith's other 2007 title, Peak. (Fiction. 10-13)"
It's out of the frying pan and into the fire for 14-year-old Nick Freestone, as he is sent out of London during the Blitz only to arrive at his father's teak plantation in Burma right before the Japanese invade.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: May 1, 2007
"Teachers will want to pair this with Mark Pfetzer's Within Reach: My Everest Story (1998). (Fiction. 12-15)"
Dare-devil mountain-climber, Peak Marcello (14), decides to scale the Woolworth Building and lands in jail.
Read full book review >
ADVENTURE
Released: Sept. 1, 2005
"Despite tense, action-packed escapes, the conclusion strains the bounds of credulity. (Fiction. 9-12)"
After a narrow escape from the drug dealers in whose trial Jack's father will testify (Zach's Lie, 2001), Jack and his family have returned to the dubious safety of the Witness Security Program.
Read full book review >
Released: Feb. 1, 2005
"Enjoyably rollicking adventures are appropriately cheesy; the stereotypes, though equally fitting, are a bit much. (Fiction. 10-13)"
When Uncle Wolfe takes them on a dinosaur hunt, orphaned twins Grace and Marty find themselves in a B-movie with email.
Read full book review >
FICTION
Released: June 1, 2001
"An intriguing idea, well-written, with many heart-stopping moments, this should appeal to a wide variety of readers. (Fiction. 12-14)"
ANIMALS
Released: March 1, 1998
"Some concerns about the environment and sensitivity toward the elephants are mentioned; full-color photographs record dramatic events and minor ones in this unique partnership. (map) (Nonfiction. 7-12)"
paper 0-15-201290-7 "La," "Yah," and "Haw" are not the gurglings of an infant but a string of commands that a timber elephant must learn in the southeastern Asian forest of Myanmar, formerly Burma.
Read full book review >
ADVENTURE
Released: May 1, 1997
"A first-rate adventure about greed, mutual dependence, and family. (Fiction. 11-13)"
The lush tropical rainforest serves as an unexpected but colorful setting for this sequel to Smith's Thunder Cave (1995, not reviewed).
Read full book review >
ANIMALS
Released: Feb. 1, 1993
"Index. (Nonfiction. 10-14)"
From a biologist with 20 years of zoo experience (keeper to assistant director): a discussion of the special care, plus unusual procedures and equipment (diets, incubators, gravity-flow feeding tubes), needed to rear a wide variety of baby animals.
Read full book review >
