From Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery medalist and author of the beloved classic, A Wrinkle in Time, comes this sensitive, well-written story of a young girl who unwittingly becomes involved in high-risk political and ecological intrigue, set against the starkly beautiful background of Antarctica. After a year spent in New York City with her family, Vicky Austin is bored with the quiet Connecticut village where she grew up. School has little savor, especially since her boyfriend, Adam has gone off, first to college and then to Antarctica on a research grant. Vicky whiles away the time writing in her journal and visiting Adam's great aunt Serena, a lively old woman who has taken a shine to her. Then Aunt Serena surprises Vicky by giving her a cruise through Antarctica as a birthday present. Vicky is thrilled. But abruptly Adam's letters — previously warm and affectionate — grow cryptic and cool. Then Vicky begins to receive warnings in the form of anonymous notes and postcards. She's not sure which of her fellow passengers on the Argosy to suspect, but soon her growing attraction to a handsome young prince leads her straight into the arms of danger, and she has cause to fear for her life. This is a story that is perfectly seasoned with just the right amount of everything: intrigue, romance, coming-of-age angst. Antarctica is vividly and compellingly rendered; the ecological concerns are timely; the characters fully realized and sensitively drawn. L'Engle is a master. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-374-37783-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Beautiful and important.
When Death tells a story, you pay attention.
Liesel Meminger is a young girl growing up outside of Munich in Nazi Germany, and Death tells her story as “an attempt—a flying jump of an attempt—to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.” When her foster father helps her learn to read and she discovers the power of words, Liesel begins stealing books from Nazi book burnings and the mayor’s wife’s library. As she becomes a better reader, she becomes a writer, writing a book about her life in such a miserable time. Liesel’s experiences move Death to say, “I am haunted by humans.” How could the human race be “so ugly and so glorious” at the same time? This big, expansive novel is a leisurely working out of fate, of seemingly chance encounters and events that ultimately touch, like dominoes as they collide. The writing is elegant, philosophical and moving. Even at its length, it’s a work to read slowly and savor.
Beautiful and important. (Fiction. 12+)Pub Date: March 14, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83100-2
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A delightfully captivating swatch of autobiography from the author of Kiss. Kiss, Switch Bitch and many others. Schoolboy Dahl wanted adventure. Classes bored him, there was work to be had in Africa, and war clouds loomed on the world's horizons. He finds himself with a trainee's job with Shell Oil of East Africa and winds up in what is now Tanzania. Then war comes in 1939 and Dahl's adventures truly begin. At the war's outbreak, Dahl volunteers for the RAF, signing on to be a fighter pilot. Wounded in the Libyan desert, he spends six months recuperating in a military hospital, then rejoins his unit in Greece, only to be driven back by the advancing Germans. On April 20, 1941, he goes head on against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Athens. On-target bio installment with, one hopes, lots more of this engrossing life to come.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0142413836
Page Count: 209
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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