An inventive treat, with humor, heart, and a hint of magic.
A Russian girl adopts a very large, very unusual “puppy” in Maroney’s debut middle-grade novel.
Although 9-year-old Natasha loves her grandfather, Deda, she doesn’t like having to leave her little Russian village to stay with him in the impoverished, crime-ridden town of Horridgrad while her father is away on an engineering job. The town is a scary place, under the thumb of crime boss Ivan the Horrid and a corrupt mayor. So Natasha is delighted when Deda buys her a playful, snow-white puppy in the marketplace. She names him Mishka, and the animal grows at such an astonishing rate that some in town even wonder if he’s a dog at all. (The author’s clever hints about what Mishka is become more overt as the story progresses.) When Mishka helps to rescue children from an icy pond, stops a robbery, and keeps Ivan’s thugs away, he makes the town’s residents feel safer, and they begin to join together to improve their community. Irate Ivan, losing his grip on the town, schemes with the flunky mayor to get rid of Mishka. Maroney sets this delightful story in the present day, but gives it the unforced charm of an old-world folk tale, with moments of real hilarity, subtle suggestions of mystery and magic, and an inventive take on the theme of good triumphing over evil. Along the way, the author gets in a few sly jabs at politicians; for instance, the mayor takes a course in answering questions and afterward “could answer questions all day long and never say one thing that made any sense.” In another quirky moment, Ivan is disappointed that the hitman he hires turns out to be an animal rights activist. Natasha, Deda, and rambunctious Mishka are well-developed characters, as are several side players.
An inventive treat, with humor, heart, and a hint of magic.Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-916118-11-9
Page Count: 291
Publisher: Talisman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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