From acclaimed novelist Mary Wesley (Haphazard House, 1993) comes this smug, obnoxious YA novel set in the contemporary English countryside. Kate is given a bullfinch by her big sister Angela; one day, Kate learns that the pet—called Mr. Bull—and all the other animals she comes in contact with are actually able to talk. But rather than maximizing the marvelous juxtaposition between the well-observed realism with which Kate's life is described and the magical possibilities offered by a world in which all the animals, domesticated and feral, speak a perfectly comprehensible and even witty English, Wesley just glosses over this marvel to present a plodding, quasi-morality play about animal rights. The plot—which involves getting all the animals to warn other species about upcoming hunts and so forth—is muddled to the point of utter tedium. Eventually Kate and Angela's parents and various adult members of the community are drawn into the struggle, as are a pair of neighboring children, Andrew and James. But none of the characters comes to life; most interesting is Mr. Bull, who is unfortunately confined to saying and doing very little. Despite its delicious premise, Speaking Terms is a crashing bore. Readers will turn away long before the end, which is confusing and wholly without dramatic import. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-87951-524-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Overlook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
PERSPECTIVES
Does Tessa ride an aging, longshot Buffoon to victory in the Grand National? Of course—even a thoroughly modern...
A heroine who takes pride in her ability to get thrown out of schools updates an old-fashioned girl-and-her-horse story.
Veteran author Peyton (Snowfall, 1998, etc.) presents Tessa, whose life is forever changed when her mother walks out on her drunken horse-breeder father, wrenching Tessa from the love of her small life, a blind broodmare. Eight years and several schools later, a thoroughly rebellious Tessa finds herself engaged by her vicious stepfather to work at a local racing stable, where she takes on as a charge Buffoon, the ugly colt of her beloved mare. Only Tessa has faith in Buffoon, a faith that is repaid when Buffoon becomes a contender in the Grand National—against her stepfather's own horse, prompting a nasty bit of sabotage. And this is only the first half of the book. A leisurely pace accommodates the twists and turns the novel takes, including Tessa's (unsuccessful) stabbing of her stepfather, a stint in a juvenile reformatory, the loss and rediscovery of Buffoon, and not one, but two, miraculous operations, one on the jockey Tessa comes to love and one to restore a blinded Buffoon's sight. Compelling storytelling, fascinating details of the English racing scene, a heroine with real psychological depth, and a well-rounded cast of secondary characters (with the exception of the wholly odious stepfather) carry the plot without missing a step over its contrivances to a satisfying steeplechase finish.
Does Tessa ride an aging, longshot Buffoon to victory in the Grand National? Of course—even a thoroughly modern girl-and-her-horse story needs to follow the rules. Does this matter? To a lover of good girl-and-her-horse stories, of course not. (Fiction. 12+)Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46652-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Another gruesomely explicit creature feature from the author of Rats (not reviewed). Jake arrives at his scientist father’s Amazon rain forest camp just as a car-sized, brain-sucking vampire bat begins picking off the native helpers. Impeded only by the most minimal plot or character development, Zindel cuts to the gore right away, running up the body count, and sometimes changing point of view so that readers can experience directly the pleasures of having venom vomited into one’s mouth or fangs sinking into eyeballs. Eventually, Jake is left alone to face the monster, and after a wild struggle leaves it for the piranha to finish off. Readers who get goosebumps from R.L. Stine’s books will rip into this with relish. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7868-0340-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2001
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