A white child raised by the Mohicans who massacred his parents is given a chance to choose which world will be his in this probing, thoroughly researched first novel. Jonathan is only four when he's dragged from the hollow log in which he'd been hiding; eight years later, as Echohawk, he remembers his previous life only in occasional dreams. Nonetheless, his wise adoptive father, Glickihigan, sends him to the settlers' school for a year to learn English and, he explains, ``the ways of the people you were born to . . . someday you may feel a pull toward them.'' Durrant's focus is less on plot or character—though she avoids typecasting and provides comic relief with the byplay between Echohawk and his feisty little brother—than on observing the cultural changes as whites move in and indigenes die or move on; the appended glossary, bibliography, and endnotes sharpen this sociological slant. Though Echohawk feels the ``pull'' of his old life, he leaves school when he learns that his intolerant schoolmaster plans to spirit him away to Boston. With his village wiped out by disease, and, in reawakened memories, his recognition of Glickihigan's role in the deaths of his parents, Echohawk faces a path that will be a solitary one. A prequel to Last of the Mohicans? No, Durrant avers, but it makes a natural lead- in. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1996
ISBN: 0-395-74430-X
Page Count: 181
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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