Beneath the crescent moon, a shared dream becomes life-threatening reality for two angry young people—one deaf, the other fatherless. Having isolated herself by refusing to vocalize or wear a hearing aid, Miranda takes her usual summer trip to Summerhaven, a Penobscot Bay island, fully aware that since the death of her friend Timothy—the only islander who could sign fluently—it won't be the tranquil escape it had been in past years. There she meets Boone, nursing grievances of his own since the abrupt departure of his father—and his mother's work schedule leaves him to cope (not too well) with unruly younger siblings. The two do not warm to each other until, spurred by a recurring dream of a shadowy figure on a nonexistent island, Miranda rows out into the bay, encounters Timothy's ghost, and rescues Boone, who had been dreaming the same dream. Butts convincingly shapes Miranda's resentment, fueled by the exaggerated but not entirely unjustified conviction that she's a victim of prejudice, describing with uncommon clarity her signs and how deafness affects her acts and perceptions. The supernatural twist seems superfluous, however, less a healing device than a contrivance for creating dramatic tension—this and the perfunctory way Boone's family troubles vanish without explanation strand a strong protagonist. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1996
ISBN: 1-886910-08-1
Page Count: 105
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
The worldbuilding of countless eco-thrillers serves here as the setting for a classic Western. A Western, that is, with plankton instead of cows, harpoons instead of six-shooters and submarines instead of covered wagons. Ty lives below the ocean, in a future in which water levels have risen and Topsiders live cramped together in unbearable conditions. Undersea, any brave settler can stake a claim and build a huge homestead. Ty was born down here, and he loves it. When he encounters freckle-faced Topsider orphan Gemma, he revels in showing her his world, from inflatable houses shaped like jellyfish to beautiful schools of swordfish. If only they weren’t in danger from the villainous Seablite gang that keeps attacking homesteads! This caper features a slew of Western standards—the crabby old doctor (“Doc”), the saloon filled with bandanna-clad thugs, the posse of furious citizens—and a few plot twists keep the tension high. A thrilling conversion of the classics to one of our newer frontiers. (Science fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-17814-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2010
A child’s feelings of loneliness and isolation are eventually replaced with a longing for adventure in a mysterious book from Nascimbene (A Day in September, 1995, not reviewed). Sent to a boarding school in the Swiss Alps for the summer while her parents are vacationing, L£cia, homesick for S—o Paulo and family, remains detached from all activities until the day she hears distant hammering emanating from a local barn. Intrigued, L£cia discovers a kind farmer named Aldo behind the sound; he is keeping a secret from the outside world. Befriending the girl after she pours out her heart to him, Aldo decides to show her the large sailboat he has been building. L£cia, who renames all the wildflowers she finds according to her wishes, finds a wildflower she calls Ocean Deep and sends it to her parents, foreshadowing the dream she is to have later aboard Aldo’s boat; in this dream she sails close enough to her shipbound parents to wave at them. The beautifully conceived illustrations have a range of appearances, from the look of cut-paper silhouettes whose spaces have been washed in watercolor, to landscapes and seascapes with perspectives and of a simplicity of line associated with Japanese art. The typeface, though attractive, is a small size that makes this better for read-aloud sessions than reading alone; the story, long for a picture book, but deeply felt, is ripe for the interpretation of children. (Picture book. 7-11)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-56846-161-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
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