A fitting envoi for a writer whose most enduring tales of nature and survival are required childhood reading.
George’s last novel, completed by her sons Twig and Craig, traces a 200-year cycle of devastation, change and recovery in Arctic waters.
In 1848, Toozak, a Yu’pik lad, is awed to witness the birth of a bowhead whale with a distinctive chin marking, naming it Siku. But the privilege becomes an obligation years later, after he unthinkingly sets off a general slaughter by pointing a Yankee whaler to a pod of whales. He is told by a shaman that atonement will require protecting Siku until the whale dies or rescues either him or one of his descendants. Over the next two centuries, as bowheads are hunted nearly to extinction, then become a protected species and slowly recover, the whale and descendants of Toozak sight one another once or twice each generation. The structure makes for a particularly episodic plot but provides readers with a panoramic view of the area’s natural and human history. To get away from anthropomorphism in the undersea chapters, George invented a system of squiggly lines to represent the whales’ own names and other calls. 2048 brings a final encounter (research suggests that bowheads can live that long) and also a wistful, wishful picture of an Arctic culture that has returned to its old roots.
A fitting envoi for a writer whose most enduring tales of nature and survival are required childhood reading. (map, whale portrait) (Adventure. 10-13)Pub Date: April 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-37457
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals.
Is dolphin-assisted therapy so beneficial to patients that it’s worth keeping a wild dolphin captive?
Twelve-year-old Lily has lived with her emotionally distant oncologist stepfather and a succession of nannies since her mother died in a car accident two years ago. Nannies leave because of the difficulty of caring for Adam, Lily’s severely autistic 4-year-old half brother. The newest, Suzanne, seems promising, but Lily is tired of feeling like a planet orbiting the sun Adam. When she meets blind Zoe, who will attend the same private middle school as Lily in the fall, Lily’s happy to have a friend. However, Zoe’s take on the plight of the captive dolphin, Nori, used in Adam’s therapy opens Lily’s eyes. She knows she must use her influence over her stepfather, who is consulting on Nori’s treatment for cancer (caused by an oil spill), to free the animal. Lily’s got several fine lines to walk, as she works to hold onto her new friend, convince her stepfather of the rightness of releasing Nori, and do what’s best for Adam. In her newest exploration of animal-human relationships, Rorby’s lonely, mature heroine faces tough but realistic situations. Siblings of children on the spectrum will identify with Lily. If the tale flirts with sentimentality and some of the characters are strident in their views, the whole never feels maudlin or didactic.
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-67605-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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