A clever, if unwieldy, tale of childhood in a foreign land.
An intriguing coming-of-age story about a group of children on a U.S. military base in Panama.
Jimmy Wade and his friends are classic military brats: Each has lived in a dozen places and has no permanent friends to speak of. So when the group meets in 1953 on a naval base near the Panama Canal, they’re all thrilled to have close friends. Jimmy, athletic, intelligent and naïve, befriends Bobbi, a tomboy with romantic aspirations. Together, with shy Mitchell and cocky Steve, they explore the mysterious jungle at the edge of the base. There they discover a lagoon and a hidden cave, a sanctuary away from their parents and ever-present military chaplain. The friends suffer through a dangerous series of incidents as a rapist prowls the area around the base. Each child’s life changes as the mystery unravels. Bookending the story is Jimmy’s return to Panama 40 years later to reunite with the group of friends. Unfortunately, despite this enticing prologue and epilogue, the entire story takes place in the past–the novel would be better served if more of the events were set in the present, tying the two periods together. More space should be devoted to their lives as adults. King writes well about children and their small triumphs, but their experiences begin to feel episodic. The setting, though, is fascinating; the children live in a foreign land, but have domestic playmates. The characters here may interact seamlessly, but the large cast and chain of events can get confusing at times. As much as the plot moves along, it never really crescendos. The novel is too long by half, and would be more powerful in a condensed volume.
A clever, if unwieldy, tale of childhood in a foreign land.Pub Date: June 28, 2000
ISBN: 978-0-7388-2297-6
Page Count: 428
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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