by C.R. Stewart ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2019
A flawed but exciting, fast-paced, and intriguing adventure.
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After escaping from an abusive British orphanage, two friends travel, face danger, and learn of a deep conspiracy in this debut middle-grade novel.
Although it’s the 21st century, the Weatherly orphanage in Yorkshire, England, run by Mr. and Mrs. Grievous, resembles an institution straight out of Dickens. The orphans are worked hard all day to make sellable items; they get little food, wear tattered clothing, and receive harsh punishments. Twelve-year-old Tom came to Weatherly six years ago, having lived in a string of orphanages since he was a child. He’s close friends with Sarah Wallace, also 12, who’s been orphaned for two years. It’s time to escape, Tom figures, especially when Mr. Grievous taunts him with the information that his parents are still alive. Tom and Sarah make a risky breakout, but on their trail is Detective Arthur Gowerstone, a legendary finder of runaway orphans. Tom and Sarah evade him by stealing a hot air balloon. In Oxford, they meet a friendly professor who guides them to Windsor Castle, where he believes the butler, a former student, will help. But Tom and Sarah soon run straight into a conspiracy carried out at the highest levels that involves the royal succession; nowhere in England is safe. In this series opener, Stewart offers nearly nonstop action, with escapades both perilous and amusing, and exhilarating hairsbreadth escapes. The conspiracy is bold and compelling while the plot folds in intriguing facts about British culture, history, and famous sites. Verisimilitude falters, though; for example, orphanages no longer exist in Britain. And if the orphans never go to school, how do they learn to read the books that are their only pleasure? Another bar to enjoyment is an overabundance of adverbs, which call too much attention to themselves (“whispered enthusiastically”; “replied nonchalantly”; “added earnestly”; “said graciously”; “added philosophically”). Another problem is some underlying sexism; Tom is usually the active partner while Sarah tends to fall down and need rescuing or comforting.
A flawed but exciting, fast-paced, and intriguing adventure.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73296-120-3
Page Count: 394
Publisher: Devonfield Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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