Nevertheless, an action-packed tale with guns and boat chases that will appeal to reluctant readers
“What happens on the water stays on the water,” is the attitude in this fishing community on the fictional New England community of Fog Island.
Things are not going well for 12-year-old Eddie Atwell and his family. Poachers have stolen roughly 1,000 pounds of lobsters from the Atwell’s “car” (the mostly submerged, enclosed pen used to hold lobsters in seawater), and Eddie’s dad is on the mainland having surgery. All the action takes place within 24 hours, with each chapter heading counting down the minutes. At 4:05 in the morning, Eddie sneaks away from his sister Laurie to go fishing on Greenhead Point. At 5:01, he stumbles upon the stolen lobsters and learns Laurie’s boyfriend, Jake, is one of the poachers. At 5:40, Eddie meets 13-year-old Briggs Fairfield, a geeky rich kid who escaped from the nearby sailing camp because he is being bullied by Marty, one of the counselors—who also happens to be the ringleader of the thieves. By 9:45 that evening, the chase is on. The story is relies a touch too heavily on character and regional stereotypes, while some of the situations seem far-fetched.
Nevertheless, an action-packed tale with guns and boat chases that will appeal to reluctant readers . (Adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: July 19, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-585-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones. (Autobiographical fiction. 11-13)
An exhilarating summer marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not uncoincidentally named “Jack Gantos.”
The gore is all Jack’s, which to his continuing embarrassment “would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames” whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens. And that would be on every other page, seemingly, as even though Jack’s feuding parents unite to ground him for the summer after several mishaps, he does get out. He mixes with the undertaker’s daughter, a band of Hell’s Angels out to exact fiery revenge for a member flattened in town by a truck and, especially, with arthritic neighbor Miss Volker, for whom he furnishes the “hired hands” that transcribe what becomes a series of impassioned obituaries for the local paper as elderly town residents suddenly begin passing on in rapid succession. Eventually the unusual body count draws the—justified, as it turns out—attention of the police. Ultimately, the obits and the many Landmark Books that Jack reads (this is 1962) in his hours of confinement all combine in his head to broaden his perspective about both history in general and the slow decline his own town is experiencing.
Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones. (Autobiographical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
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