by Debi Gliori ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27, 2002
Plainly channeling Roald Dahl and Charles Addams through her own uniquely wacky sense of humor, Gliori dishes up as a successor to Pure Dead Magic (2001) an equally barbed, sidesplitting farce. After being nearly pulped by pieces of slate falling from the roof of their ancient Scottish manor, the Strega-Borgia clan—including its nonhuman retainers, some of whom are mythological—finds itself ruinously expensive temporary lodgings in the nearby town of Auchenlochtermuchty, while slimy building contractor Vincent Bella-Vista, under the guise of effecting repairs, removes the roof entirely to further a nefarious scheme. Meanwhile, young Titus Strega-Borgia’s plan to clone himself and his lippy sister Pandora with a process gleaned from the Internet goes badly astray, leaving him with not two hyperactive homunculi but 500, none of them toilet-trained. Relentlessly refusing readers a chance to draw breath, the author piles complication atop catastrophe (nearly each of which involves vast amounts of physical destruction), and while bringing everything ’round right in the end dispatches Bella-Vista, along with three equally squalid associates, in spectacular fashion. The body count may be high—especially considering that four out of five of the rapidly aging little clones die before the conscience-stricken Strega-Borgia sibs can get the survivors into cryogenic storage next to six-times-great grandmother Strega-Nonna—but that’s just one wild exaggeration among many in this pedal-to-the-metal page turner. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-81411-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
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by Debi Gliori ; illustrated by Alison Brown
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by Tom Shachtman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1991
In the last of a trilogy, sea-lion Daniel au Fond achieves his heart's desires—gathering representatives of the 13 tribes of seagoing mammals, and finding Pacifica, where legend says his kind and humans once lived harmoniously together—only to discover that his quest has just begun. Constantly recalling his previous adventures (Beachmaster, 1988; Wavebender, 1990), Daniel evades oil slicks and other pollution; rescues some fellow sea mammals from captivity; and discovers, on the back of an ancient turtle, a map that leads him to a partly sunken island. In a vision, Daniel learns that his kind had once been captive even here, but freed themselves in a bloody long-ago rebellion; he then realizes that it's up to him to teach humans to respect all life. The author's indictment of our brutality to animals and of destructive environmental practices is on the mark, but the plot's a ritualistic mix of convenient turns and token conflict. The anthropomorphism of the various seals, sea otters, cetaceans, etc., further undercuts the immediacy of the message. Daniel's fans are likely to be disappointed by the vaguely articulated resolution. For a better-written, more compelling fantasy that considers the same themes, see Ruth Park's My Sister Sif (p. 675). (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-8050-1285-0
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1991
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by Allan Baillie ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1992
Driven by a slim promise of safety plus the hope of finding his older brother Mang, 11-year-old orphan Muong Vithy makes his way across hundreds of miles of war-torn Cambodia to the Thai border, relying on his wits and the kindness of strangers to stay alive, evading the dreaded Khmer Rouge, and finding at last a chance for a new life in a distant country. Having passed through modern Phnom Penh and ancient Angkor Wat and finding both equally haunted, Vithy reaches Thailand. There, he meets Betty Harris, an Australian doctor, and begins to search for his brother, the last member of his family seen alive. Finally giving Mang up for dead, Vithy agrees to go with Harris to Australia—where he joyfully finds his brother awaiting him at the Sydney airport. The atrocities and privations that make Wartski's Boat to Nowhere (1980) and other refugee stories so searing are kept offstage here; this is a milder narrative (with something of a fairy-tale ending), but Baillie keeps the plot moving and his characters are deftly drawn and believable. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-670-84381-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1992
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