Readers won over by Dom will hope the next installment brings some clarity to the over-the-top plot.
Imported from Australia, this volume kicks off a series chronicling how one young man deals with a highly unusual family legacy that goes back generations.
Dom Silvagni is living the good life in an upscale suburb. His passion is middle-distance running, and training takes up most of his time. What’s left he devotes to his friend Imogen, a neighbor girl who is smart, beautiful, and practically smothered by her overprotective mother. Everything changes on his 15th birthday, when his father and grandfather tell him of the legacy left the family by his ancestor, who welched on a debt owed to the ’Ndrangheta (“like the Mafia, but not as nice”). Now all male Silvagnis must contribute to its repayment by accomplishing six different tasks. Dom can’t share the responsibility or ask for help, and only The Debt knows what the tasks will be. The penalty for not finishing the tasks? The Debt takes a pound of his flesh—literally. His first task is to capture the Zolt, a teenage Robin Hood with a huge Internet fan base, and the task is not only difficult, it threatens Imogen’s safety. The adventure gets off to a rather confusing start, the complicated, unlikely setup posing significant suspension-of-disbelief challenges. Still, there’s something undeniably intriguing about the storyline, and Dom is a likable protagonist.
Readers won over by Dom will hope the next installment brings some clarity to the over-the-top plot. (Adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61067-303-7
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
Salva Dut is 11 years old when war raging in the Sudan separates him from his family. To avoid the conflict, he walks for years with other refugees, seeking sanctuary and scarce food and water. Park simply yet convincingly depicts the chaos of war and an unforgiving landscape as they expose Salva to cruelties both natural and man-made. The lessons Salva remembers from his family keep him from despair during harsh times in refugee camps and enable him, as a young man, to begin a new life in America. As Salva’s story unfolds, readers also learn about another Sudanese youth, Nya, and how these two stories connect contributes to the satisfying conclusion. This story is told as fiction, but it is based on real-life experiences of one of the “Lost Boys” of the Sudan. Salva and Nya’s compelling voices lift their narrative out of the “issue” of the Sudanese War, and only occasionally does the explanation of necessary context intrude in the storytelling. Salva’s heroism and the truth that water is a source of both conflict and reconciliation receive equal, crystal-clear emphasis in this heartfelt account. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-547-25127-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2010
SEEN & HEARD
The inevitable go-to for Percy’s legions of fans who want the stories behind his stories.
Percy Jackson takes a break from adventuring to serve up the Greek gods like flapjacks at a church breakfast.
Percy is on form as he debriefs readers concerning Chaos, Gaea, Ouranos and Pontus, Dionysus, Ariadne and Persephone, all in his dude’s patter: “He’d forgotten how beautiful Gaea could be when she wasn’t all yelling up in his face.” Here they are, all 12 Olympians, plus many various offspring and associates: the gold standard of dysfunctional families, whom Percy plays like a lute, sometimes lyrically, sometimes with a more sardonic air. Percy’s gift, which is no great secret, is to breathe new life into the gods. Closest attention is paid to the Olympians, but Riordan has a sure touch when it comes to fitting much into a small space—as does Rocco’s artwork, which smokes and writhes on the page as if hit by lightning—so readers will also meet Makaria, “goddess of blessed peaceful deaths,” and the Theban Teiresias, who accidentally sees Athena bathing. She blinds him but also gives him the ability to understand the language of birds. The atmosphere crackles and then dissolves, again and again: “He could even send the Furies after living people if they committed a truly horrific crime—like killing a family member, desecrating a temple, or singing Journey songs on karaoke night.”
The inevitable go-to for Percy’s legions of fans who want the stories behind his stories. (Mythology. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-8364-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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