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
“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
A child finds that being alone in a tiny tropical paradise has its ups and downs in this appealingly offbeat tale from the Australian author of Peeling the Onion (1999). Though her mother is long dead and her scientist father Jack has just sailed off on a quick expedition to gather plankton, Nim is anything but lonely on her small island home. Not only does she have constant companions in Selkie, a sea lion, and a marine iguana named Fred, but Chica, a green turtle, has just arrived for an annual egg-laying—and, through the solar-powered laptop, she has even made a new e-mail friend in famed adventure novelist Alex Rover. Then a string of mishaps darkens Nim’s sunny skies: her father loses rudder and dish antenna in a storm; a tourist ship that was involved in her mother’s death appears off the island’s reefs; and, running down a volcanic slope, Nim takes a nasty spill that leaves her feverish, with an infected knee. Though she lives halfway around the world and is in reality a decidedly unadventurous urbanite, Alex, short for “Alexandra,” sets off to the rescue, arriving in the midst of another storm that requires Nim and companions to rescue her. Once Jack brings his battered boat limping home, the stage is set for sunny days again. Plenty of comic, freely-sketched line drawings help to keep the tone light, and Nim, with her unusual associates and just-right mix of self-reliance and vulnerability, makes a character young readers won’t soon tire of. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-81123-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
