A Maryland eighth-grader with an attitude problem stumbles through a catastrophic summer in this labored, agenda-ridden debut. Hank shuttles at will between his mother and her new husband, both too stoned even to notice when he comes home with a ring in his ear, and his lawyer father, whose new wife is a control freak whom Hank dubs “Mrs. Perfect-Lady-Karen.” Cast as a typical pimple-popping, masturbating-in-the-shower, going-inarticulate-around-girls teenager, Hank repeatedly finds himself out of his depth. He catches his father, supposedly working late at the office, with his pants down; walks in on a gang-bang at an orgiastic party; ultimately falling in with a pair of gay paintball enthusiasts who take him to a tournament in Pennsylvania, where he’s kidnapped by a squad of homophobic ex-marines. Escaping from this last, Hank stumbles down to the Pennsylvania Turnpike just as his seventh-grade English teacher drives by, and so gets a ride home. With the possible exception of Hank’s little stepsister Stephie, all of the characters here are held up as examples, good or bad, and used to set up moral quandaries, or to deliver opinions and sermons on sex, parental responsibility, lying, respect, teaching methods, and more. From slow start to unlikely finish, Hank’s overstuffed tale gives readers no reason either to consider its plethora of pointed messages seriously, or to root for its unappealing narrator. Billed as the first of a trilogy, too. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-890862-22-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2002
Pitamic bites off more than she can chew with this instructional art volume, but its core projects will excite in the right context. Twelve pieces of fine art inspire two art projects apiece. Matisse’s The Snail opens the Color section; after history and analysis, there’s one project arranging multicolored tissue-paper squares and one project adding hue to white paint to create stripes of value gradation. These creative endeavors exploring value, shade, texture and various media will exhilarate young artists—but only with at best semi-successful results, as they require an adult dedicated to both advance material procurement and doing the artwork along with the child. Otherwise, complex instructions plus a frequent requirement to draw or trace realistically will cause frustration. Much of the text is above children’s heads, errors of terminology and reproduction detract and the links between the famous pieces and the projects are imprecise. However, an involved adult and an enterprising child aged seven to ten will find many of the projects fabulously challenging and rewarding. Art In Action 2 (ISBN: 978-0-7641-441-7) publishes simultaneously. (artist biographies, glossary, location of originals) (Nonfiction. Adults)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7641-4440-0
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Barron's
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
American citizens have been held hostage in the Middle East at least since 1979, when our embassy in Teheran was seized by a mob; Lawson's history of the US government's response in the 80's makes a sad tale of hypocrisy, incompetence, and corruption. He shows how, after the hostage crisis cost Carter his political career, Reagan allowed a series of profitable arms-for-hostages deals to go through—while publicly condemning the idea—to finance his ``pet anti-communist project.'' The ensuing revelations, investigations, and trials are covered here in some detail. In an epilogue, Lawson notes that a new group of hostages were taken when Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in 1990. A thematic introduction by Arthur L. Liman, an attorney involved in the Senate Iran-contra investigation, sums it up: Reagan's advisors, acting from ``disrespect, bordering on contempt'' for the Constitution, established a ``secret government within the Government'' for specifically illegal purposes. B&w photos; adequate bibliography; long chronology; excellent notes; chart listing hostages taken in the 80's; index. (Nonfiction. YA)
Pub Date: April 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-531-11009-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1991
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