More brilliantly re-envisioned history from the author of Year of the Hangman (2002), this time set in brawling, bustling Civil War Washington. Using present tense and authorial interjections delivered in a tone of mystery, Blackwood shepherds readers into the theatrical world, where, after years of hardship, Nicholas Ehrlich and his teenaged son Joseph are enjoying a rapid rise, buoyed by their ingeniously designed new mind-reading act. Understandably dazzled by the public’s adulation and the chance to hang out with the renowned likes of John Wilkes Booth, Joseph is nonetheless able to keep his sense of perspective (usually), thanks to his friend Cassandra, a frail orphan who really is gifted with second sight—and whose fragmentary visions of President Lincoln are taking on an increasingly ominous cast. But how to persuade anyone to believe her? The suspense really begins to rev up when Joseph begins catching whiffs of conspiracy from more earthly quarters. Blackwood draws almost exclusively upon historical people and events, sets them in the most vivid evocation of the time and place since Jennifer Armstrong’s Dreams of Mairhe Mehan (1999) and caps his mesmerizing thriller with a stunning twist. (Historical fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-525-47481-1
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
If it were a Golden Age comic, this tale of ridiculous science, space dogs and humanoid aliens with flashlights in their hands might not be bad. Alas... Number Four is a fugitive from the planet Lorien, which is sloppily described as both "hundreds of lightyears away" and "billions of miles away." Along with eight other children and their caretakers, Number Four escaped from the Mogadorian invasion of Lorien ten years ago. Now the nine children are scattered on Earth, hiding. Luckily and fairly nonsensically, the planet's Elders cast a charm on them so they could only be killed in numerical order, but children one through three are dead, and Number Four is next. Too bad he's finally gained a friend and a girlfriend and doesn't want to run. At least his newly developing alien powers means there will be screen-ready combat and explosions. Perhaps most idiotic, "author" Pittacus Lore is a character in this fiction—but the first-person narrator is someone else entirely. Maybe this is a natural extension of lightly hidden actual author James Frey's drive to fictionalize his life, but literature it ain't. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-196955-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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