Etchemendy (Crystal City, not reviewed) mixes quick action and long thoughts in this tale of a lad who discovers that changing the past is a tricky business. When a gimpy old man, smelling of ozone, pops up from nowhere and hands him a palm-sized time machine, Gib Finney is understandably dazzled by the possibilities. But his excitement changes to anguish when he loops back in time to prevent first his little sister, then her sitter, from being run down by a truck, and learns that there’s a momentum to events that is hard to divert. Gib’s increasing desperation, as he tries to figure out how to head off what he knows is about to happen, injects suspense into the story, and his misadventures with the “unner” prompt insights into how minor incidents or casual choices often have far-reaching, unpredictable consequences. In the end, he does manage to keep anyone else from being hurt, at the cost of having his own leg crushed (readers will have twigged to the mysterious old man’s identity long before this) and the “unner” suffers the same fate. This hangs together better than William Sleator’s similarly premised Rewind (1999), but readers who assume from the cover illustration that it's a comedy are in for a shock. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: May 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8126-2850-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
A clear and likable transformation story inside a distractingly problematic frame. Gerry’s parents study baboons in Tanzania. On the way to camp, their tiny plane crashes and 14-year-old Gerry is knocked unconscious. When he awakes, he’s a baboon. He finds the baboon troop and integrates himself into it, learning to forage and follow their patterns. Gerry retains his own consciousness, though over time he slides into a more baboon-like perspective. Meanwhile, Gerry’s human body lies in a coma in the nearest hospital. Gerry the baboon, wounded by a poacher attack and a fire, seeks his parents’ camp, where he’s killed by a leopard—just as his consciousness returns to the human body. No explanation is given for either transportation. The doctors purport that Gerry “just dreamed the whole thing while . . . in a coma,” but logical readers will note that Gerry’s baboon memories would be easily verifiable. Details of the baboons’ daily lives are well-written and interesting, but the frame’s confoundingly flimsy; steer discerning readers to Peter Dickinson’s Eva instead. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-55451-054-2
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
Imagine being able to go back in time—just 15 minutes—to undo something you did or said. That’s what seventh-grader Casey can do with his grandfather’s old watch. It allows him to say the right thing instead of the wrong thing to girls, to elude a bully’s daily dunking and to be at the right place in the right time on the football field. This engaging premise is tricked out with a snappy cover, obtrusive design, inclusion of familiar boy-author names, and occasional opportunities for the reader to add to the story—but it doesn’t need those bells and whistles. Casey is an appealing and well-developed character, the plot moves along swiftly, once it gets going, and the story ends happily with our hero beginning to understand the bully as well as to cope with his bullying ways. An easy sell for fifth- and sixth-graders. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: July 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-072508-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
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