A lively yet serious read that both teens and younger children will enjoy.
In this middle-grade novel, three kids go on a dangerous adventure when their father, a lieutenant colonel in the 4th Armored Division, deploys to West Germany in 1957.
Military insiders think of “brat” as a term of endearment. Seven-year-old Kirsten McMasters (aka Rabbit or “Wild Child”); her sister, Laura, nicknamed “Queenie”; and their secretly “wild” but publicly well-behaved brother, Jack, accept the “brat” label “with great pride.” So does debut author Lyons, who traveled the world as a so-called “Army brat,” and he draws on this life experience in a romp that’s spiced with risk and history lessons. Its tight, fast-paced plot will maintain readers’ interest, beginning with the McMasters children crossing the Atlantic on a troop ship, enjoying various escapades in off-limits areas while their seasick mom stays in bed. The dramatic tension this creates foreshadows dangers on the Army base in Baden-Württemberg; these include Jack’s violent classmate, Ryan Kerrigan, and his pack of bullies, who are mysteriously intent on keeping other kids out of the nearby woods. The author creates believable characters, including Jack, a reluctant hero who’s bad at sports; with some help from friends and a kind Little League coach, his own math skills, and inspiration from Spartan military culture, Jack becomes a “warrior” on the baseball diamond and beyond. Kirsten is oblivious to surrounding perils, while the older McMasters kids tensely sort out puzzles, such as why American soldiers are needed in Germany if the Nazis lost the war; where their father’s tank command goes; who the “Commies” are; and why their mom hides fully packed suitcases in her closet. Jack and Queenie are particularly perplexed when their German nanny, who supposedly speaks little English, accidentally reveals her fluency in the language and warns them not to tell their parents. Throughout, Lyons’ simple yet direct writing style features engaging, realistic dialogue even when characters are explaining complicated topics, such as sonar tracking.
A lively yet serious read that both teens and younger children will enjoy.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-946957-02-3
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Bravur Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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