An imaginative fantasy stuffed with too many characters and details.
A debut YA novel focuses on a magical land of positive thinking.
Rousing presents Levi Levy: a 15-year old who has received a strange message from something called the Interdimensional Council of Cognition. Levi is invited to attend the Selective Thought Studies Program in Dimension 11. It certainly sounds like a wild idea. Yet Levi doesn’t have a whole lot going for him in Earth’s regular dimension. Perhaps he can become something greater in a new place. Levi is soon transported, thanks to a purple funnel cloud, to a land of magic where he will be in training to become a “thought sifter.” The key throughout his training will be the ability to harness the power of his thoughts. He will even be able to fly in this world if he can train his mind to keep him in the air. Under the gentle watch of a wizardlike man named Hemp, kids like Levi keep thought journals, engage in an aerial sport called Solarshay, and eat veggie burgers at the local diner. But all is not mere fun and games. A figure named Orable has his own set of dastardly plans for up-and-coming thought sifters. Will Orable be successful or can his schemes be halted with the power of positive thinking? Positive thinking is, of course, the whole point here, and it is a theme that is driven home time and again. As Hemp asserts, “Directing your thoughts is the key to, well—everything.” While the message may be obvious, that does not mean the events surrounding it always are. A lot happens in just over 300 pages and it all progresses quickly. Nevertheless, the story can be jumbled at times with additional aspects like enchanted cupcakes, a creature called a “think bug,” and supporting characters of varying interest (take, for instance, Levi’s Yorkshire terrier, who has managed to follow him to Dimension 11 without a whole lot to contribute). But ultimately, the tale is open to any number of tantalizing outcomes. The burning question is: Will Levi be able to direct his mind to choose the right one?
An imaginative fantasy stuffed with too many characters and details.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-615-71924-5
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Thoughts To Die For Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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