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Unsuitable for Adults Over 16 Years Old

Name: Unsuitable for Adults Over 16 Years Old
Author: Amanda George
ISBN: 978-1491802830

by Amanda George ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27, 2013

A YA novel that’s more didactic than entertaining.

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This debut YA novel follows the exploits of an imaginary breed of creature called “Humirrels,” a cross between squirrels and humans that lives on a cloud in the middle of the sea.

The story mainly follows the adventures of two young Humirrels: Ishmael, who, like many preteen and teenage boys, is impulsive and occasionally thoughtless, and Eveowna, who is more mature and rather prim. The two go to school together and, after Ishmael finds a trap door to another land in his backyard, travel to a new land. Interspersed with these episodes are scenes of Ishmael at home, usually locking horns with his mother, who’s doing her best to raise him to be a good little Humirrel. Meanwhile, there are typical childhood occurrences—getting in trouble for talking out of turn during class, fighting with a close friend, tension between parent and child. Kids and adults would find the corresponding lessons more palatable if they were coated with a bit more plot as opposed to being presented as plainly as a plate of undressed kale. Although the title implies that the novel will be of interest to teens up to 16 years old, in both style and content it seems aimed at a much younger audience. Much of the novel concerns itself with imparting the kinds of life lessons and appropriate behaviors instilled in children: obey one’s elders; going to school is important; be considerate toward others’ feelings; etc. Also, the text needs to be cleaned up, since commas are rather sorely abused: “At least they didn’t have to swim any more, for a long while at least, they could just relax.” With a lively imagination, George has clearly put a lot of time and care into crafting the Humirrel breed—for instance, when Humirrels blush, “their foreheads go a weird purple colour”—but these details are frequently inserted almost at random and not integrated into the overall narrative.

A YA novel that’s more didactic than entertaining.

Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013

ISBN: 978-1491802830

Page Count: 228

Publisher: AuthorHouseUK

Review Posted Online: April 22, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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GOING SOLO

by Roald Dahl illustrated by Quentin Blake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1986

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A delightfully captivating swatch of autobiography from the author of Kiss. Kiss, Switch Bitch and many others. Schoolboy Dahl wanted adventure. Classes bored him, there was work to be had in Africa, and war clouds loomed on the world's horizons. He finds himself with a trainee's job with Shell Oil of East Africa and winds up in what is now Tanzania. Then war comes in 1939 and Dahl's adventures truly begin. At the war's outbreak, Dahl volunteers for the RAF, signing on to be a fighter pilot. Wounded in the Libyan desert, he spends six months recuperating in a military hospital, then rejoins his unit in Greece, only to be driven back by the advancing Germans. On April 20, 1941, he goes head on against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Athens. On-target bio installment with, one hopes, lots more of this engrossing life to come.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1986

ISBN: 0142413836

Page Count: 209

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
QUENTIN BLAKE'S FANTASTIC JOURNEYS
by Quentin Blake ; illustrated by Quentin Blake

- BOOK REVIEW
<i>MONA LISA</i> AND THE OTHERS
by Alice Harman ; illustrated by Quentin Blake

- BOOK REVIEW
ROALD DAHL SHAPES
developed by Roald Dahl ; illustrated by Quentin Blake

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MONSTER

by Walter Dean Myers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1999

The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...

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In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.

Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.

The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)