A bright fish tale that young readers will enjoy, even if unnerving truths about conflict lurk below its surface.
A story of a little fish who learns important lessons about bravery, tolerance, and community with the help of a loving father.
Much of the premise of this debut children’s book seems inspired by the popular 2003 Disney movie Finding Nemo, even down to the heroine Hope’s unusually formed fins. One could do worse than emulate one of Disney’s best-crafted stories, but this isn’t just a retread of that little-boy-lost tale—instead, it’s one in which larger forces are at work. Where Nemo largely sought personal growth, debut author Neumeier makes Hope a scrappy crusader for the health and security of her entire community. As in J.D. Salinger’s classic 1948 short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” the fish provide a cautionary tale: they feed on bananas stored in underwater caves, and they sometimes gorge themselves so grotesquely that they become trapped and perish. The author expands on this idea to create a complete economic system in which amphibious crabs harvest bananas from the shore of a nearby island and then distribute them to create feeding grounds for banana fish like Hope. Previously mocked by other fish for her longer fins, Hope eventually distinguishes herself as a strong swimmer who takes on the role of “defender” for her school, protecting them on their feeding-ground trips by acting as a lure for predators such as sharks, catfish, and the crabs themselves. Naturally, she gets separated from the group, her father strikes out after her, and she faces her fears and forges new friendships away from the world she knows. But there’s more at stake here in Neumeier’s adventurous tale than just getting home safely: in the end, he’s created an extended allegory about economics, warfare, and diplomacy. Hope becomes an important player in a multiparty treaty agreement to implement a new banana distribution system, to parcel out territories for feeding grounds and living quarters, and to explore alternative food sources for the fish. Even if the overall moral of the story is somewhat unclear, Hope is a spunky, aptly named heroine, and her escapades will engage readers young and old.
A bright fish tale that young readers will enjoy, even if unnerving truths about conflict lurk below its surface.Pub Date: April 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1511552554
Page Count: 118
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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