THE DAYBREAKERS

by Jane Louise Curry ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1970

Confoundment, confusion, explanation; confoundment, confusion, explanation: what would be a fantasy of past wrongs and present rightings shapes up primarily as The Mystery of the Indian Mound. Black Callie opens contact by impulsively(?) building seven snowmen, sniveling little ""drippy"" Tapp wantonly(?) sacrifices a rabbit, and his cousin Melissa, Callie's classmate, discovers with Callie the long snow-free hillock, the hole that becomes a ""treasure"" chamber, and the Edge as it once was, grassy and tree-ringed, before despoliation. Seized by brown strangers, the girls and Callie's twin Harry, who's followed them, become pawns in the struggle of Abalok against the powerful seven cities of Cibotlan; later they will return to Abalok with new knowledge and several classmates to intervene actively. But most of the action occurs in now-troubled Apple Lock, West Virginia strip-mined, polluted, on half sessions because the school budget's been defeated: and among the polyglot youngsters in Class 206 who build the findings into a joint project, a historical museum of the area. Their delving and decoding is intriguing though the dialogue is strained--a stab at the casual slang of kids that doesn't come off. Meanwhile their discoveries make archaeological history (not that they get much credit), help shore up the school system and maybe ""stop all the ugtification."" An echo of Beneath the Hill but a far cry from it.

Pub Date: April 15, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION