A tender and timely tale; likely to inspire future animal rights activists.
In this novel, a large, juvenile polar bear forages for food in the Canadian town of Churchill, an experience that ends his life in the wild.
In Inuit poetry, the polar bear is called Pihoqahiak, “the ever-wandering one.” But in Ryan’s poignant tale about the plight of wild animals whose territory begins to intersect with human civilization, the free-roaming days of a polar bear who becomes known as Patch are over as quickly as they began. It is Halloween eve in 1986, and the 2-year-old bear has discovered there is tasty garbage to be consumed in Churchill, on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay. He enters a house, causes a commotion, and rushes out the front door, spotting 11-year-old Jordan Johnson on the street. He charges after the frightened boy and is quickly shot with a tranquilizer dart by a bear-patrol officer. The animal is then taken to a holding cell in an airport hangar. The next day, Jordan and his 14-year-old sister, Raven, visit the caged bear. The magnificent youngster is huge, weighing close to 400 pounds “and standing…over seven feet tall. His fur was dense, his paws huge and the muscles on his hindquarters bulged and strained as the bear stood upright.” Looking directly at Jordan, he lets out a massive growl, opening his mouth wide and revealing a gray patch on his tongue. The mark will earn him his name and enable Jordan and Raven to follow his journeys, first to a German zoo, then to a traveling circus. Ryan’s novel, aimed at middle-grade and YA readers, is both engaging and informative. The author includes tidbits about polar bear life in the wild, such as how the animals fish and spread their paws out wide to minimize the risk of falling through thin ice. And she vividly portrays the variety of Patch’s experiences in captivity—some of them gentle, others terribly cruel. Heart-tugging scenes capture the bear pacing in boredom or feeling listless, with a damaged coat from malnutrition and the heat. Jordan and Raven are pleasant human protagonists, determined to free the bear, but it is the majestic Patch who will linger in readers’ minds long after the final page.
A tender and timely tale; likely to inspire future animal rights activists.Pub Date: March 24, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5305-4127-0
Page Count: 124
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A skillful sequel that adds new layers to a coming-of-age story.
In this follow-up to Ghetto Cowboy (2011), 14-year-old Cole convinces his mother to let him stay in Philadelphia with his father and beloved horse, Boo, instead of returning to Detroit.
Cole and his dad, Harper, are still learning to navigate their father-son relationship after years of being estranged. As they figure out their new arrangement, Harper says Cole has to get a job to help earn his keep as well as Boo’s. Working as a stable hand at a nearby military academy, Cole meets young cadets who are strikingly different from him in socio-economic class and attitudes—and who seem to have it out for him from the start. Fortunately, Cole also meets and befriends Ruthie, a Black girl on the polo team who shares his love for horses. She is in a minority at the school due to her race and sex; the friendship offers mutual support. While working there, Cole develops a growing attraction to Ruthie as well as an interest in possibly attending the academy someday. But is this world just too different from his own for him to even get a foot in the door? And is he ready to leave everything he’s known behind? In this entry, Neri gives readers a look into another type of equestrian life while maintaining the tone and style readers appreciated in Cole’s cowboy journey, including an evocative voice and situational code-switching. Final illustrations not seen.
A skillful sequel that adds new layers to a coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0711-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Themes of freedom and responsibility twine between the lines of this short but heavy novel from the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (2000). Three months after his mother's death, Rob and his father are living in a small-town Florida motel, each nursing sharp, private pain. On the same day Rob has two astonishing encounters: first, he stumbles upon a caged tiger in the woods behind the motel; then he meets Sistine, a new classmate responding to her parents' breakup with ready fists and a big chip on her shoulder. About to burst with his secret, Rob confides in Sistine, who instantly declares that the tiger must be freed. As Rob quickly develops a yen for Sistine's company that gives her plenty of emotional leverage, and the keys to the cage almost literally drop into his hands, credible plotting plainly takes a back seat to character delineation here. And both struggle for visibility beneath a wagonload of symbol and metaphor: the real tiger (and the inevitable recitation of Blake's poem); the cage; Rob's dream of Sistine riding away on the beast's back; a mysterious skin condition on Rob's legs that develops after his mother's death; a series of wooden figurines that he whittles; a larger-than-life African-American housekeeper at the motel who dispenses wisdom with nearly every utterance; and the climax itself, which is signaled from the start. It's all so freighted with layers of significance that, like Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue (2000), Anne Mazer's Oxboy (1995), or, further back, Julia Cunningham's Dorp Dead (1965), it becomes more an exercise in analysis than a living, breathing story. Still, the tiger, "burning bright" with magnificent, feral presence, does make an arresting central image. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-0911-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
BOOK TO SCREEN
© 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
