Fourteen-year-old Cody is not afraid of anything. Certainly not the big cats at the Texas tiger farm where he has found a job and a hiding place. He likes Sunny, the owner, and his work with the animals. But Sunny’s brother is missing; the word is that she has killed him and fed him to the cats. The murder investigation not only threatens his job, it might reveal his true identity. Cody can manage even being in the cage with the white tiger Brutus, meanest of them all, but he can’t return to the monstrous mother who physically and emotionally abused him. The emphasis here is on the present action, not the unhappy past. Middle-grade readers will relish the gory, scary details of caring for big cats as they learn, with Cody, never to turn your back or run away from a tiger—of any kind. Just shout and say NO! It doesn’t hurt to take some action to help solve the mystery and to save your job as well. Solid book bait. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: June 27, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83410-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
Baz is an excellent thief. She has been since the beginning, when Demi found her as a tiny child and she came to live with him in Fay’s den of child crooks in an (perhaps frustratingly) unspecified urban slum. No one is as good at picking pockets as the innocent-looking team of Baz and Demi, and they’re content to be Fay’s favorite children. When Demi steals a glittering ring from an uptown lady, they fall into a lengthy chain of betrayal and corruption. Spies within their own gang are the least of their problems; the ring belonged to the chief of police’s wife, and both the police and the mob are after them. Trusting anyone is dangerous, but Baz doesn’t want to end up like Fay and Demi, who trust no one. Lavish details of the hellish environment, from mud flats that drown the unwary to the festering garbage mountain on which enslaved children pick trash for the mob, derail the adventure’s forward momentum, slowing it to a crawl. What ought to be a thrilling chase drags, despite the charming, streetwise heroine. (Fiction. 12-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-56330-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Chelsea Green
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2010
Katy has lived in her small Old Order Mennonite community very peaceably despite her mother’s death, which followed her separation from the family and church. Now, Katy is intent on going to the high school, something never before done by any community member, for whom the small, one-room schoolhouse has sufficed. It’s scary, but Katy is used to being odd, and she quickly finds a friend, the daughter of a Baptist minister. Shelby is assigned to be her guide, and they gradually find interests they share—mostly that they are writers. Since Sawyer takes the trouble to show that not all Mennonites are exactly the same, that they are different from the Amish and that their religion doesn’t mean they don’t have typical teen concerns about romance, friendships and their future, the story stays focused on what many teens will find they have in common with Katy—a desire to direct her own life and find her place in the world. With only occasional narrative references to scripture, God and prayer, Katy comes across as a likable kid with an unusual life. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-310-71924-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Zondervan
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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