Overall, compelling and skillfully written, but in this case, less would have been more
A thoroughbred racehorse tells his story in this middle-grade novel.
Dante’s Inferno has it all—a superior pedigree, striking looks and a comfortable life in an upscale racing barn. What he doesn’t have is the right attitude. He nearly dies at birth but is resuscitated with painful shots of adrenaline, leaving him with a deep distrust of pain-inflicting humans. While technically dead, Dante has an out-of-body experience, meeting his deceased grandfather, a legendary Triple Crown winner named Dante’s Paradiso, who tells him he needs to “conquer three great tests” but does not name them. Amateau writes a believable horse’–point-of-view narration, giving Dante a confident, even privileged voice as he relates, first, his failed racing career—despite numerous advantages and even more numerous expectations—and then his second career as a dressage/hunter/cross-country competitor in the Maury River Stables. Gradually—oh, so gradually—Dante learns humility, trust and love. The story has a clear arc and seems to end on a powerful note, but then…there are two more chapters. One describes Dante’s meeting with a decrepit Appaloosa (the eponymous Chancey from the first in the series), and in the other, Dante provides a brief history of the thoroughbred breed and its future. Both struggle to fit into the story.
Overall, compelling and skillfully written, but in this case, less would have been more . (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7004-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
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