A collection of lighthearted, chuckle-worthy tales with an inventive hook.
A pair of British Cloud Machine operators takes a variety of humorous weather-creating jobs in this picaresque debut story collection.
The first tale introduces the concept of manufactured, made-to-order weather, provided by the Black, Black & Blackemore company near Manchester, England. Employees Captain Cumulus and his faithful engineer Puffy White of the Cloud Machine Nimbus prefer to take unusual assignments instead of run-of-the-mill weather operations. Cumulus has a soft spot for Holland, so he and Puffy fly there to Mr. Sonnemans’ class and demonstrate pea-soup fog, as well as rain made of actual cats and dogs. Cumulus and Puffy then continue their escapades in both Holland and Britain. In some stories, the Cloud Machines are top-secret, but in others, the company advertises in local papers to raise funds (offering services such as revenge drenchings), and the overall conceit is delightful. The corps of Cloud Machine owners is full of wacky characters whose successes and spectacular failures are consistently entertaining. Several stories feature the Cloud Machines creating dramatic visual displays; for example, Smith describes in precise detail the rehearsal process for a disastrous (and amusing) Cloud Parade for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Cumulus also takes on a rescue operation for a fellow pilot, goes on an overseas foreign-aid endeavor, and helps investigate reports of a rogue Cloud Machine that’s sabotaging cricket matches. There are both male and female captains, although women are in far shorter supply and are treated by their peers with occasional sexism (“Abigail was not only very attractive but also wore the tightest of trousers, which highlighted her shapely backside—a feature which had attracted his gaze on a number of occasions”). Although this aspect lends the tales an old-boys’-club feel, the stories are fun adventures overall, and each episode could almost stand on its own.
A collection of lighthearted, chuckle-worthy tales with an inventive hook.Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-1483403687
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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