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SKINHEAD

Name: SKINHEAD
Author: Jay Bennett
ISBN: 0-531-15218-9

by Jay Bennett ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1991

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The widely popular, award-winning mystery writer centers this page turner around the varieties of bigotry. Jonathan Atwood, 19, is jolted from the privileged lifestyle his grandfather has provided by a police phone call that lures him from his Southhampton, Long Island home to Seattletoo late to identify the mugging victim whose deathbed demand inspired the trip. Since he can't help solve the murder, the detective in charge suggests that he return home; so does a threatening phone caller. Just as he's about to board a plane, Jennifer, a university student, stops him, identifies the victim, and implores Jonathan to help solve the murder and expose the ``skinhead'' movement that caused it. His decision to stay not only endangers him but threatens his perception of who he is and what his life has meant. Recounting events in short, telegraphic sentences, Bennett lets action, rather than characterization or atmosphere, drive his story. While melodrama blunts its theme's thrust, the novel is involving and powerful. (Fiction. 14+)

Pub Date: April 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-531-15218-9

Page Count: 144

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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WOMEN WRITERS OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

edited by Harold Bloom ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 1997

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In the Women Writers of English and Their Works series, an entry that brings together 12 children's book (female) writers, most of them dead (Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Louise Fitzhugh, Kate Greenaway, E. Nesbit, L.M. Montgomery, Beatrix Potter, P.L. Travers, Laura Ingalls Wilder), but three who are most definitely not: Madeleine L'Engle, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Katherine Paterson. The critical extracts that Bloom (Vergil's Aeneid, 1996, etc.) brings together are difficult going even for well-read adults; what YAs may come away with—from Henry James's attacks on Alcott and Alison Lurie's retread of Greenaway as the lame boy the Pied Piper leaves behind—is the vast, consuming nature of literary criticism, its subjectivity, occasional forays into spite, and infrequent—incidental— illumination. Brief biographies (three or four paragraphs) provide background on each of the 12, while bibliographies of their works point the way to primary sources. The breadth of the 80+ articles included (from Anne Parrish on Greenaway in 1846 to articles on Wilder that have appeared in the last year) and their variety (Graham Green on Potter, Jonathan Cott on P.L. Travers, Paterson on Paterson) make the volume essential for the professional reading shelves; it may require some coaxing to get it into the hands of younger bibliophiles but will justify such coaxing amply. (Criticism. 14+)

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1997

ISBN: 0-7910-4486-6

Page Count: 165

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
VERGIL'S AENEID
edited by Harold Bloom

- BOOK REVIEW
WIND & THE RAIN
edited by Harold Bloom & Joan Hollander

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NIGHT TRAIN

by Judith Clarke ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2000

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Seventeen-year-old Luke struggles to keep his sanity while his family, his girlfriend, and his school tragically ignore, mistreat, or misunderstand his symptoms. Set in Australia, Luke’s story is told from multiple perspectives, starting from his death and moving back and forth in time. Award-winning Australian author Clarke (The Heroic Life of Al Capsella, not reviewed, etc.) leads the reader into the thoughts and behavior of Luke and the people who define his life. Expelled from two schools because of impulsive behavior, he struggles to stay in Glendale during his final year of high school, but finds it impossible to concentrate on his studies. His father is so disappointed in his academic record that he stops speaking to the boy. Margaret, Luke’s mother, is more sympathetic toward her son, but has difficulty in discussing the situation with either him or her husband. Luke’s adolescent sister hates his nonconformist behavior and avoids him. Only his little sister Naomi and his girlfriend, Caro, have any relationship with him, but even those are flawed by his inability to share his fears and anxieties. Ironically, just as Luke’s father is about to make amends, Luke is killed by the night train whose whistle only he ever hears. The author's intimation that little Naomi, feeling guilty about Luke’s death, is headed toward the same unhappy life as her brother makes the ending even more grim and hopeless. A believable, gripping story, unrelenting and tragic. (Fiction. YA)