Smart, ardent tale that will make readers want to revisit this series’ world.
A squirrel embarks on a harrowing journey to find his destiny in this YA fantasy laden with anthropomorphic animals, the second book in the Elderwood Chronicles series.
When squirrel Lady Rodriga finds a baby squirrel adrift at sea, she raises him as her own. Before she dies, she tells Gethsarade that he has an ambiguous origin that involves the phrase “last of hopes.” Rodriga implores Gethsarade to find his destiny. He later makes a living by playing guitar, but after incensing a few animals, including the landlord he owes, Gethsarade flees and becomes a stowaway on a ship. Unfortunately, this ship is packed with rats known as pirats led by Capt. Barrogan Black. Adopting the name Vincent Poppaldi, Gethsarade befriends his onboard jail mates, Tiburt and Gy. After they manage to liberate themselves, the three ultimately seek the treasure of the City of Elorus, the same treasure Black wants. The rat captain’s crew follows them to the squirrel realm of Hesperia, but Gethsarade leads the locals in overwhelming the pirats. Now some believe that Gethsarade is destined to save them. As Capt. Black secretly hatches another plan, Gethsarade must decide if he’ll be the savior that others expect or if he’ll simply take the treasure and run. In Claybrook’s (The Miller and the Moon, 2019, etc.) deceptively straightforward story, there’s minimal plot development regarding characters’ destinations. But the animal characters are spirited and complex, particularly Gethsarade. Notwithstanding his eventual choice, he’s a prospective hero who, at least to some extent, is driven by greed. At the same time, backstory is engrossing. Readers first meet Gethsarade’s parents in a prologue that includes an introduction to the sinister Capt. Black. The story entails further, copious surprises, from what exactly the treasure is to a secret one of Gethsarade’s companions harbors. Though the young adult narrative is an easy read, the writing is crisp: “he had a hard set jaw, the kind only possessed by squirrels of high resolve, who needed no introduction or solicitation.”
Smart, ardent tale that will make readers want to revisit this series’ world.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-08-780121-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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