When Danny's Pop goes back to the VA hospital with recurrent post-traumatic stress disorder, Danny discovers he's not quite as capable of caring for himself as he'd thought. The author of The Adventures of Boone Barnaby (1990) returns to the small town of San Puerco for another engaging, well-told tale of a young person with choices to make. Boone's friend Danny watches the coyotes who live nearby spurn every gift (rightly fearing poison), yet steal unhesitatingly; he sees the local pusher driving ever-fancier cars; he hears that the visiting soccer team has overwhelmed its opponents with intimidation and foul play. Still, fundamentally decent Danny takes his own path- -doing odd jobs, learning to accept freely offered gifts, spending what money he makes responsibly, and refusing to cheat, either in business (he's a born organizer) or on the playing field. Cottonwood makes his points in both obvious and subtle ways and buoys his story with an idiosyncratic, good-natured cast; with Danny's voracious, vividly described hunger (almost a running gag); and with a soccer game in which the winner is not the team with the highest score. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-590-45067-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
A Spoonerville, Texas, Little League team, sponsored by the local toilet-tissue company, opens the season with a collection of misfits coached by a nuclear physicist—completely ignorant of baseball—and his hotshot niece Kristy, visiting from New York because ``The parental units are doing the Europe thing this summer, so I'm chilling out down here with my main man....'' Kristy goes quickly to work, pushing the team into line with sharp talk (``Tsupwitchoor bat, bro'? Does it have bad breath, so all the baseballs won't go near it?''), simple psychology, and the threat of a certain locker-room photo (``What a day to wear my bunny rabbit underwear!'' moans one player). After a series of hilarious misadventures, the Feather-Soft Tigers finish, naturally, on top. Once again, Korman whips up a broad-humored farce, driven by a colorful cast and salted with satire—more-or-less gentle fun with plenty of unconventional (to say the least) baseball action. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-590-46230-X
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
The author of Hunt For the Last Cat (1991) returns to prehistoric North America to follow now-vanished wildlife on its long migratory cycle across the Great Plains. Huge condor Teratorn and mammoth matriarch Mamoot are the main figures here; Teratorn hovers over the prairie, ever vigilant for small prey or fresh kills, while Mamoot leads her family group, generally immune to predators but susceptible to drought, accident, and overgrazing. Despite the proper names, Denzel's great beasts aren't anthropomorphic; they act out the old story of birth, growth, and death (usually violent and gory) in characteristic natural ways. Humans appear, late in the book, as a new but not particularly efficient predator. Vivid descriptive passages establish a strong sense of place and time, but the author doesn't develop a sustained plotline, and Watkinson's pencil drawings are static and undramatic. Steer readers to nonfiction for information, and to Denzel's previous books for paleo-adventure stories. (Fiction. 11- 13)
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1993
ISBN: 0-399-21894-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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