A debut young-adult novel set in a militaristic, sexist society.
Sixteen-year-old Annabelle lives in a world where the government oversees her every move. America has undergone a second civil war, and Annabelle, her adoptive mother and her beloved sister Janine, live in Knoxville, Tenn., a city run by the all-female Tenn-tucky mech forces. The mechs’ mission: to protect their borders, rescue females and capture males. Annabelle is told that the male species is both inferior and a deadly threat. But although she, like everyone else, is expected to faithfully obey militaristic rule at all times, her heart won’t let her do so. When she was 3, her father was killed by the mechs, and her mother was imprisoned for life for attempting to save him. Although Annabelle loves and respects her adoptive mother, a senator who serves as a voice of reason in their community, she can’t respect the society that destroyed her parents. She repeatedly tries to find her biological mother and help the few males that are left, but when she’s caught too many times, she’s forced to join the mechs herself. Her final test is to fight a brute—a male monster—to the death. Readers will easily engage with this well-written tale. Annabelle is believably stubborn, yet also vulnerable and likable. Erlick also paints other characters vividly; for example, Dara, a mech and Annabelle’s nemesis, is so nasty that readers may find their skin crawling whenever she enters a scene. The novel has plenty of action and suspense, made all the more thrilling due to the investment readers have in the characters. The novel’s psychological elements keep things interesting, as well; the fact that Annabelle must join the force that killed her father, and try to remain an individual in a society that praises sameness, certainly has an effect on her. Readers will likely think about this society long after finishing the book.
A stimulating, worthwhile story of a dystopian future.Pub Date: March 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0988996809
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Finlee Augare Books
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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In this debut middle-grade novel, a lonely boy finds friendship and learns about the magic of human connection.
Defined by the large mole on his lip, 10-year-old Gregory has grown distant from his family. He is friendless and withdrawn. Then one night a strange little creature emerges from Gregory’s mole. It is riding a (quite lovable) cockroach and can change size. This is the Grimbockle. The Grimbockle—one of many Bockles, who, like Palmer Cox’s Brownies, live at the peripheries of human awareness—tends to the exoodles that bind people together. Exoodles are long, transparent, noodlelike threads and are usually invisible. Once Gregory has his eyeballs painted with Carrot Juicy, though, he can see them. He joins the Grimbockle and the roach, traveling the exoodles as if on a high-speed roller coaster. Exoodles wither and die when people don’t look after their relationships. The Grimbockle is trying to repair a particularly sickly exoodle that links a boy to his mother. Can Gregory help—and can he mend the exoodles in his own life? Schubert follows delightedly in the footsteps of Roald Dahl, opening her unfortunate young protagonist’s eyes to a previously unseen world both weird and wondrous (yet for all its outlandish magic, oddly logical). The scenario is one of riotous imagination, while the Grimbockle himself—brought sweetly to life in black-and-white illustrations by Kraft—is a sprightly and good-natured little person, full of the type of singsong infelicities found in Dahl’s beloved nonhuman characters: “Is you ever seeing glimpses of squiggles in the corners of your twinklers but then they is disappearing in a snippety blink?” “ ‘Exoodles!’ shouted the Grimbockle in triumph. ‘Sometimes, hoo-mans is getting so twisty and wound up in extra exoodles that they is feeling gloomy blue and heavy all day long.’ ” The story is perhaps too much of a parable to fully match Dahl’s template; the adventure is safer and the threats less dark. Nonetheless, readers should fall willingly and with thrilled abandon into the fizzy, fanciful world of Gregory and his Grimbockle friend.
A beautifully realized daydream; a fun yet thoughtful exploration of the complexities and possibilities hidden beneath surface appearances.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9911109-3-3
Page Count: 153
Publisher: New Wrinkle Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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A lost bunny searches for his mother in this debut picture book.
The youngster is already lost in the beginning of Lakhiani’s version of the time-honored tale of a lost child reuniting witha parent. On a foggy day, a young rabbit finds that he doesn’t recognize where he is. He calls for his mother, but instead of her voice in response, he hears the hum of a bumblebee. The nameless little rabbit asks if the bee knows where his home is, but the bee doesn’t and sends him on to the wise owl, who “sees everything.” As the little rabbit runs through the “eerie” fog toward the owl’s tree, he meets a kind squirrel. “I’ve lost my mother….I am lost and scared,” explains the little rabbit. The squirrel leads the rabbit to the wise owl’s tree, which the rabbit climbs to ask the owl, “[C]an you see where I live?” The fog is too thick for the owl to spot little rabbit’s home, so he gives the little rabbit a snack and invites him to rest. Falling asleep, the little rabbit dreams of his mother but is awakened by the hooting, buzzing and chattering of his three new friends. Looking around, he sees his mother, who embraces him: “I will never again let you out of my sight,” she tells him. The digitized art by Adams, some of which is credited to Thinkstock, is in a cartoon style that clearly delineates the characters but includes a few anthropomorphic details—a graduation cap for the owl, spectacles for the squirrel and only four legs for the bee—that add little value. Since the story centers on the little rabbit failing to recognize where he is, the choice to make the right-hand page of every spread identical is potentially confusing; regardless, it’s repetitious. The text fails in the opposite direction: It doesn’t create the typical patterns that can help toddlers follow the story, build anticipation and learn to chime in—steps on the path to reading alone. Erratic rhythms, changing stanza lengths and rhyme schemes, and awkward syntax undercut attempts to enliven the tale with poetry.
A story with a tried-and-true plot that needs to freshen up its presentation.Pub Date: May 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1491895603
Page Count: 24
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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