A grand, well-rounded adventure that mixes nature, Native American lore, and the history of the Desolation Canyon region.
London’s (The Seasons of Little Wolf, 2014) middle-grade novel follows six people on a transformative rafting trip.
Twelve-year-old Aaron and his father have embarked on a whitewater rafting trip down the Green River in the Desolation Canyon area of Utah. Joining them are their guide, Roger; his 12-year-old daughter; Lisa, Wild Man Willie; and his 16-year-old son, Cassidy. In 1991, the three fathers served together in the Iraq War. Since then, they’ve raised three very different children. Aaron is lanky and thoughtful; Lisa is a veteran river rafter; and Cassidy is a genuine juvenile delinquent who entered a detention center after beating a man with a baseball bat when he was 14. They clash early. Cassidy’s penchants for bullying (i.e. hurling large rocks) and risk-taking worry the other kids. To complicate matters, Aaron develops a crush on Lisa, whom he hopes to impress by mastering his first rafting experience. When Cassidy disrespects Aaron’s dad both physically and verbally, the trip starts to fall apart. Eventually, these two couple up in their own raft, only to vanish around a bend. A suspicious scrap of evidence nearly confirms Aaron’s worst fear as the group frantically searches the river and surrounding desert. The latest from YA author London is a wise and wonderful reading experience for anyone who loves—or is just learning to love—natural history. The briskly flowing narrative contains great details about desert life, always offered in lovely prose: “Here and there sparse forests of pinyon pine and juniper were clinging tenaciously to the high slopes and cliffs.” Elsewhere, London delivers some vivid characterization; we’re told that Cassidy has more “tattoos on his body than teeth in his head.” Most importantly, London provides space for sublime moments to blossom, including the nighttime scene when “the river flowed by, mirroring the Milky Way.” This coming-of-age tale also features enchanting illustrations by the author’s son, Sean.
A grand, well-rounded adventure that mixes nature, Native American lore, and the history of the Desolation Canyon region.Pub Date: April 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1941821602
Page Count: 168
Publisher: WestWinds Press
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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