Soon the kingdom of Comnor, which like Narnia exists only in the imagination, will become a free republic, but not before a rebel named Com is removed. Tasha’s father abdicated his throne to begin a democratic republic, and Marko has been duly elected its president. In his absence, however, Com has declared himself the new king and has put Tasha and Marko’s little sister, Raina, into a compound for political prisoners. When Marko sends the symbol of a white dove, Tasha knows the time has come for her and Raina to flee. Her father’s brother, Ari, wearing the disguise of an old man, plans and executes their harrowing escape and their return to Marko—but not before vital state documents are retrieved from a secret bedroom compartment, thus ensuring Com’s downfall. Readers will not want to put this book down. Accounts of treachery, deceit, and truth rewarded fill this novel. Escaping from caves and a dungeon, Tasha’s determination to oust Com and rejoin the rebels gives her the courage to strive for her personal freedom and the freedom of her country. Boundless determination, hope, and desire put into action—these are the messages here. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-618-00464-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
A girl’s odyssey through, and ultimate understanding of, the life of a boy whose only crime was being born into the wrong family becomes a powerful tale of redemption from Grove (Rimwalkers, 1993, etc.), written with grace. Almost everyone in the Missouri farming community where sixth-grader Carly lives hates and fears the Groats, who live along a swamp, close to a vile and stinking landfill. The men of the clan are hard-drinking, gun-toting types, painted as caring little for civilized society and its rules. As part of a class assignment, a horrified Carly has to interview Dustin Groat; he’s not very clean, fairly surly—a loner who comes to school wearing a small pin in his knuckle. In the course of the interview, Carly begins to question her classmates’ treatment of Dustin, and to solve some mysteries: why her third-grade teacher, after a run-in with Dustin’s father, left town in the middle of the school year, and why Dustin needs a network of hiding places. Worst of all, Carly recalls what she did to Dustin in third grade that so humiliated him that he was forever changed from a boy grieving over his mother’s suicide to a “melted,” broken creature. Among a cast of memorable characters, Dustin is obviously pitiable but also noble: Small hurts and large ones culminate until there is only an outcast who is not without dignity, and a savior who is not without culpability—it’s all very human, and brimming with compassion. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: May 18, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-23008-4
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1998
This piercingly sad tale of a haunted family is assembled like a jigsaw puzzle, piece by piece. Skylar’s resolve to take a summer class at a high school downtown is almost buried beneath her own apprehension and her mother’s irrationally frantic concern for her safety. Alexandra, Skylar’s older sister and sole confidante, offers only weak encouragement, and withdraws even that when Skylar begins making friends with several classmates. Thesman (The Other Ones, 1999) brings the picture into focus slowly, dropping tantalizing hints about why Skylar is so fragile emotionally, her mother sliding rapidly toward a nervous breakdown, and all of their friends and neighbors gone cold and distant. Observant readers will gradually catch on that there is something strange about Alexandra; as it turns out, however real she may be to Skylar, she was in fact abducted three years before. Exploring the public and private effects of a family member’s sudden, never-explained disappearance, Thesman takes a more restrained, but no less emotionally intense, tack than Michael Cadnum in Zero at the Bone (1996), adds a further hint of mystery by suggesting that Alexandra is visible not just to Skylar, but to her two-year-old brother too, and ultimately brings Skylar to the point where she can bid her sister’s ghost good-bye. One and a half hankies. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-670-88874-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2000
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