A contrived, poorly constructed climax caps an anemic plot in this soapy tale of two teenagers struggling to make sense of personal, social, and racial relations in a small Georgia town. Kari can't explain, even to herself, why she puts a rock through African-American classmate Shawna's window, but the incident draws the pair together—especially after they learn that Kari's mother, Allison, and Shawna's father, Joe, have a history that's been hushed up. Meanwhile, Shawna's editorial in the school paper challenging the antebellum customs of the town's upcoming Old South Ball, and an ensuing letter in which an interracial couple, Marlon and Natalie, announce their intention to attend, stirs up an exclusive girls' club of which Kari is an increasingly unenthusiastic member. For reasons that are never clear, Joe and Allison won't talk about why they didn't graduate with their high-school class: Joe abruptly went to Chicago, and Allison was bustled off to relatives in Knoxville for six months. Shawna and Kari bolt to Knoxville, believing themselves to be searching for the half-sibling they never knew they had. Having pushed her characters to a fever pitch, Hewett (Soulfire, 1996) mercilessly bursts their balloon: Yes, Joe and Allison were found in a compromising situation, but there was no baby. The racial controversy over the ball is also summarily resolved; such haste combined with gaps in logic, fragmentary conversations, and a weak finish make for a patchy story at best. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-525-45959-6
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
If it were a Golden Age comic, this tale of ridiculous science, space dogs and humanoid aliens with flashlights in their hands might not be bad. Alas... Number Four is a fugitive from the planet Lorien, which is sloppily described as both "hundreds of lightyears away" and "billions of miles away." Along with eight other children and their caretakers, Number Four escaped from the Mogadorian invasion of Lorien ten years ago. Now the nine children are scattered on Earth, hiding. Luckily and fairly nonsensically, the planet's Elders cast a charm on them so they could only be killed in numerical order, but children one through three are dead, and Number Four is next. Too bad he's finally gained a friend and a girlfriend and doesn't want to run. At least his newly developing alien powers means there will be screen-ready combat and explosions. Perhaps most idiotic, "author" Pittacus Lore is a character in this fiction—but the first-person narrator is someone else entirely. Maybe this is a natural extension of lightly hidden actual author James Frey's drive to fictionalize his life, but literature it ain't. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-196955-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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