An entertaining and insightful tale that readers of all ages will savor.
In White’s (Windows on the World, 2011, etc.) YA sci-fi adventure, a 13-year-old boy and his father escape a dystopian world by joining a community of tiny people.
Young Zert Cage, in Low City DC in 2083, earns respect by engaging in trash wars with otherteenson the streets. This involves the use of garbage-propelling rifles, which gets him arrested for felony vandalism. His widower father, Jack, is already worried about the latest epidemic of Superpox. Jack received his vaccination when it was affordable, but he can’t afford the current price of vaccinating Zert. Now, he fears that his son will be put in “Teen-Jail” for anywhere from six months to 20 years. The only solution, it seems, comes from Jack’s brother-in-law, Marin Bluegar, a celebrity due to his appearances on the adventureholoshow New Worlds. Marin wants Jack and Zert to take part in a top-secret project in which they’ll undergo a process called “minimizing,” which will shrink them to the size of thumbs. They have to leave everything in their old lives behind, but as a result, Zert will get vaccinated and avoid incarceration. Sadly, adjusting to life in a small settlement of shrunken people called Paradise proves difficult, due to its insect-based cuisine and locals who ostracize newcomers. At the center of White’s absorbing story is a teen who doesn’t fit in; for example, Zert’s peers in Paradise were born there, so they’ve never had electricity and don’t believe the boy’s accounts of amazing technology. The author also adds an element of suspense with the constant threat of the community kicking Jack and Zert out, as they only have three weeks to prove their worth. The novel even supplies a touch of mystery, as well; it turns out that Marin may have withheld information regarding the minimizing project, and Paradise residents often mention Abbot, the last outsider they banished. Along the way, White ably details the giant insects of Paradise, both as potential dangers and as ingredients in delicacies such as cricket soup. The occasional animal hybrids are delightful, too—especially a “bassetduck” that “quarks.”
An entertaining and insightful tale that readers of all ages will savor.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63299-194-2
Page Count: 266
Publisher: River Grove Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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