Hart gives 18th-century life on a sparsely settled Virginia island a decidedly unappealing cast in this melodramatic historical yarn. Forced into servitude by the harsh new owner of a tavern her widowed father has lost in a card game, Molly leads a miserable existence. However, hers is not as brutal as the one Rafe, a half-white plantation slave caught reading and savagely whipped for it, is trying to escape. When Rafe washes ashore in the wake of a shipwreck, he and Molly, his rescuer, become wary allies. This comes in handy when picaroons (Tory pirates active after the Revolutionary War) attack the village in search of a rumored stash of British gold. The author needs a number of big contrivances to bring her tale round to a happy ending. She does a creditable job, however, of showing how a slave would use a mix of playacting and quick wit to get by in a hostile world and of taking two young people past realistically portrayed prejudices to a halting, mistrustful but nonetheless real friendship. Too earnest, but absorbing nonetheless. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-525-47092-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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A century before the events of Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy, another everyday heroine gets entangled with demon-slaying Shadowhunters. Sixteen-year-old orphaned Tessa comes to London to join her brother but is imprisoned by the grotesque Dark Sisters. The sisters train the unwilling Tessa in previously unknown shapeshifter abilities, preparing her to be a pawn in some diabolical plan. A timely rescue brings Tessa to the Institute, where a group of misfit Shadowhunters struggles to fight evil. Though details differ, the general flavor of Tessa’s new family will be enjoyably familiar to the earlier trilogy’s fans; the most important is Tessa’s rescuer Will, the gorgeous, sharp-tongued teenager with a mysterious past and a smile like “Lucifer might have smiled, moments before he fell from Heaven.” The lush, melodramatic urban fantasy setting of the Shadowhunter world morphs seamlessly into a steampunk Victorian past, and this new series provides the setup for what will surely be a climactic battle against hordes of demonically powered brass clockworks. The tale drags in places, but this crowdpleaser’s tension-filled conclusion ratchets toward a new set of mysteries. (Steampunk. 13-15)
Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-7586-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010
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After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin. The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyle’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice. Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
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