A memorable read.
Solo’s dad walked away from a successful Hollywood career writing cartoons, traded the Corvette for a VW bus, and moved his family from their beachfront home to a trailer in Oregon, where Solo’s efforts to avenge his kitten’s death at the claws of an owl go horribly wrong.
Sentenced to community service at a facility rehabilitating injured birds of prey, Solo plots his escape. Eric, a neighbor with Down syndrome and a passion for bugs, is a nice kid but no substitute for Solo’s surfing buddies. Despite himself, Solo is drawn to the injured birds, even Artemis, a great horned owl who loves being sprayed with water from the hose. Solo’s boss and a senior volunteer reach out to Solo—his parents, not so much. Moving was supposed to give Solo’s dad space to write a novel drawing on his Japanese-American family’s internment during World War II—except he can’t write. Calamities mount. The VW bus breaks down, infuriating Solo’s anxious mom. Solo’s friends back home have found a replacement for him. A budding writer, Solo gains distance from stressful events by reframing and fashioning them into screenplays. There’s plenty to observe—birds aren’t the only creatures with wounds to tend and heal. The strong setting and well-drawn cast of complicated, evolving characters (Eric and his mother are standouts) overcome a tangle of subplots and a negligible high-concept premise.
A memorable read. (resources) (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63450-147-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Emily Louise is certain that the new girl moving in next door will be simply awful. Working herself into a frenzy (in long passages of text that take the conceit just about as far as it can go), she imagines a terror of a child named Shelley Boo who is a swing swiper, eats nothing but peanut butter, has “drillions and drillions” of baseball cards, and steals Emily’s best friend, Henry. Stone’s exuberant color drawings, filled with whimsical animals and reminiscent of folk art, are less effective here than in What Night Do Angels Wander? (1998). Children will still identify with Emily’s anxiety about a new neighbor and share her relief when she finally does meet the infamous “Shelley Boo,” who is really named Elizabeth. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-81677-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
Though classically modeled, this journey tale founders.
Two suburban teens ride a sailboat into Manhattan’s storm drains and meet quirky residents aplenty in this wittier-than-thou crossover effort.
Suddenly and uncomfortably thrown into one another’s company by their widowed parents’ romance, Timothy and Jessamyn express their displeasure with a prank. It backfires, sending them rolling down a Washington Heights street aboard the inaccurately named X-tra Large into a hole opened at a construction site. Disturbed but willing to go with the flow (so to speak), the two contrive to elude a massive police search, escape the clutches of the ruthless queen of a gang of subterranean art thieves and ultimately (by converting a stolen Turner canvas into a sail) survive the disastrous effects of a rainstorm. Unsurprisingly, they also bond. Bukiet chucks in such New York types as a stunningly gifted young graffiti artist and a seen-it-all police captain, along with the obligatory mentions of alligators, egg creams and dog-sized rats. He also pauses frequently for touristic disquisitions on Manhattan’s topography and the sights beneath which his protagonists are passing. Mannered references to, for instance, the flood’s “chthonic fury” (“A million drops are more than the sum of their splatters. They are voluptuous and deadly”) and analytical remarks on such topics as the craft of writing or art and money as social constructs will play better to older audiences.
Though classically modeled, this journey tale founders. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: March 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0589-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
