An angst-ridden sixth-grader struggles with family feelings as his gifted little sister acquires an invisible, but possibly not imaginary, companion in this overwrought debut. Reading Hamlet and speaking fluent Spanish at five years old, Annie is a mystery to her fellow kindergartners, teachers, and brother Jack. She’s on her way to becoming even more of an outsider with the announcement that Sarah Slade, an invisible traveler from the 25th century, is her new best friend. Reckoning for some reason that no one has yet noticed Annie playing with, and chatting gaily to, thin air, Jack takes her to and from school under close escort; meanwhile, however, personal items belonging to those who have teased or angered her begin to disappear. Sarah’s work, Annie guiltily insists. Continually cycling between envy, anger, and guilt, Jack makes an ill-tempered, insensitive narrator who expresses his resentment at every turn while, confusingly, claiming that he has always concealed it, even from himself. The waters muddy further when the children’s father, who left years ago, gets back in touch; in a genuinely perfunctory resolution to that subplot, Jack allays Annie’s anxiety about what he’ll think of her by explaining that he’s no longer a significant member of the family. Readers are not likely to warm to these characters, nor, given the story’s patchy internal logic, come to understand them—and as Dhami coyly leaves the question of whether Sarah is real or not up in the air, even that minor satisfaction is denied. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: July 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7868-2528-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2001
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
“Hear, and listen well, my friends, and I will tell you a tale that has been told for a thousand years and more.” It’s not exactly a rarely told tale, either, though this complete rendition is distinguished by both handsome packaging and a prose narrative that artfully mixes alliterative language reminiscent of the original, with currently topical references to, for instance, Grendel’s “endless terror raids,” and the “holocaust at Heorot.” Along with being printed on heavy stock and surrounded by braided borders, the text is paired to colorful scenes featuring a small human warrior squaring off with a succession of grimacing but not very frightening monsters in battles marked by but a few discreet splashes of blood. Morpurgo puts his finger on the story’s enduring appeal—“we still fear the evil that stalks out there in the darkness . . . ”—but offers a version unlikely to trouble the sleep of more sensitive readers or listeners. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7636-3206-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
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