About time these heroes got the attention they deserved for a young audience.
Special force SEALS are elite enough, but SEAL dogs are a breed apart.
Author Ritland was a SEAL for many years, training and handling SEAL dogs, and first told about his training routines and exploits in his book for adults, Trident K9 Warriors (2013). This book is a special retelling for young readers. In solid, yeomanly prose, Ritland and Gary Brozek, uncredited, bring readers through the training process; these are dogs schooled to the nth degree in nonlethal force. They also spend a good amount of time with Brett (a 12-year Navy SEAL veteran—last names are rarely used in SEAL literature) and dog Chopper in Ritland’s current work with the nonprofit Warrior Dog Foundation, which hopes “to make certain that retired [military working dogs] are able to live out the remainder of their lives in a positive environment.” Great details come to the fore, such as fascinating stuff on “tells,” that is when a dog signals that this or that is happening, and just what a dog bite can do to human flesh. There is even a positive note on George W. Bush’s weapons-of-mass-destruction fiasco—it prompted the formation of an elite K-9 unit. (Photos not seen.)
About time these heroes got the attention they deserved for a young audience. (Nonfiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-04182-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
Some gems for readers willing to get out the sieve.
Plodding through this mostly disposable collection of blog posts is claustrophobically tiring, like watching someone else reflected in a hall of mirrors.
The preponderance of young, white, female authors of commercial series fiction may explain the chatty, repetitious content and tone, larded with perishable pop-culture references. The view that blogs and social networks foster petty narcissism is reinforced here as authors reassure their teen selves that they’ll be hotties, win awards and be admitted to their first-choice colleges. Popularity, dating and looks are major themes. Writers congratulate themselves on surviving parental divorce or mean behavior from peers. Reflecting on one’s teens from a vantage point of very few years (one was 18 when she “looked back”) can sound self-congratulatory and pompous—asserting wisdom without having paid the dues of accumulated life experience. Tough personal stories often feel flat—the short form and high concept work against emotional depth. Scattered among the self-reverential messages are a few gems: Joseph Bruchac’s account of how a personal choice became a foundation for self-esteem; Carrie Jones’ refusal to be defined by stigma; Don Tate’s tough love–style straight talk to his messed-up teen self. Michael Griffo, Mike Jung and Mitali Perkins also avoid cute-speak, conveying genuine feeling and the deeper complexity and contradictions of life as it’s lived, not just blogged.
Some gems for readers willing to get out the sieve. (Nonfiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-936976-21-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Zest Books
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Disturbing but compelling.
An eloquent memoir of teen drug abuse from 1970s Berlin retains a contemporary feel in a new translation.
Christiane F.'s story begins in childhood. Readers feel, from her 6-year-old perspective, the sense of frustration and restlessness that permeates the housing projects of Gropiusstadt and her father's violent punishments for mild infractions. At 12, she first tries alcohol, hashish and LSD, and the experiences are described with evocative imagery. That Christiane will ultimately become addicted to heroin is apparent from the first page, and a sense of tragic inevitability pervades each early anecdote. Christiane paints a grim portrait of the drugs-and–sex-work scene around Berlin's Zoo Station, but readers will also see the sense of fraught community that develops among Christiane and her friends. The strong pull of heroin is never clearer than when, after four days of brutal withdrawal, Christiane talks herself into having “one last and final fix.” Short chapters written by Christiane's mother and a social worker, a photo spread, a foreword and editorial footnotes help contextualize Christiane's life in West Berlin. Readers might, however, wish for more information about how the memoir came to be published, and a note about HIV infection (not a possibility in Christiane's time, but certainly a risk now) would also be helpful.
Disturbing but compelling. (Memoir. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-936976-22-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Zest Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
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