by P.J. Petersen ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001
The author of White Water (1997) offers another tightly wound boat ride into hardship and danger. After days of heavy rain overwhelm the levies, three teenaged volunteers from a local animal center set out in a rowboat to check on a displaced elderly resident’s dog. Their errand of mercy turns into one of both human and animal rescue then takes a sudden dangerous turn when they surprise a pair of armed looters in the act of ransacking a hastily abandoned house. The tension Petersen sets up between shy, sharp-tongued Tracy and her classmate Kevin, a juvenile offender with a habit of saying or doing stupid things, then regretting them later, not only adds to the general suspense, but artfully turns into a bond as the two work together: escaping the looters, keeping their damaged boat afloat, rescuing Tracy’s captured older brother, then helping authorities nab the burglars. Filled with narrow squeaks, set against a vividly realized natural disaster and animated by some fizzy chemistry between the protagonists, this page-turner will keep readers on the edges of their seats from the get-go. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-84148-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2002
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by P.J. Petersen & illustrated by Meredith Johnson
by Trenton Lee Stewart & illustrated by Carson Ellis ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2007
Low in physical violence, while being rich in moral and ethical issues, as well as in appealingly complex characters and...
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-316-05777-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Megan Tingley/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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by Gordon Korman ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 21, 2020
This weave of perceptive, well-told tales wears its agenda with unusual grace.
Two young people of different generations get profound lessons in the tragic, enduring legacy of war.
Raised on the thrilling yarns of his great-grandpa Jacob and obsessed with both World War II and first-person–shooter video games, Trevor is eager to join the 93-year-old vet when he is invited to revisit the French town his unit had helped to liberate. In alternating chapters, the overseas trip retraces the parallel journeys of two young people—Trevor, 12, and Jacob, in 1944, just five years older—with similarly idealized visions of what war is like as they travel both then and now from Fort Benning to Omaha Beach and then through Normandy. Jacob’s wartime experiences are an absorbing whirl of hard fighting, sudden death, and courageous acts spurred by necessity…but the modern trip turns suspenseful too, as mysterious stalkers leave unsettling tokens and a series of hostile online posts that hint that Jacob doesn’t have just German blood on his hands. Korman acknowledges the widely held view of World War II as a just war but makes his own sympathies plain by repeatedly pointing to the unavoidable price of conflict: “Wars may have winning sides, but everybody loses.” Readers anticipating a heavy-handed moral will appreciate that Trevor arrives at a refreshingly realistic appreciation of video games’ pleasures and limitations. As his dad puts it: “War makes a better video game….But if you’re looking for a way to live, I’ll take peace every time.”
This weave of perceptive, well-told tales wears its agenda with unusual grace. (Fiction/historical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-29020-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
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