The adventures of 12-year-old Charlie Prescott rather than Huckleberry Finn—in a ``sequel'' novel by White (Sword of the North, 1983) that's written with the innocent tone of YA literature from a half-century ago, when role models dispensed wisdom and championed ideals. Charlie, occasionally mischievous, runs off the Wind River, Wyoming, schoolteacher when he and one of the local ruffians tie a calf to the bell rope at school. Huck Finn, now a quick-drawing sheriff, reports the incident to Charlie's father, the local newspaper editor, who is eternally vigilant in the fight against injustice. ``Cruelty is an abominable trait,'' says the upright father. ``I would rather see my son a drunkard or a cardsharp than live to see him grow up cruel.'' Finn ordinarily thrills Charlie with tales of his past—which includes stints as cowboy, buffalo hunter, US marshal, and trapper—but he's responsible now. The departed teacher is replaced by mostly responsible Josiah Grey, a black, Harvard-educated Pinkerton detective operating undercover to investigate a gang robbing gold shipments in the area. The Prescotts' maid predicts dire trouble when Mr. Grey signs on, and it soon follows from various sources, including the banker, whose daughter finds that her attraction to Mr. Grey is mutual. Along the way, however, Mr. Grey teaches in school as well as out, offering boxing lessons so that Charlie can protect himself from a bully and explaining the comprehensive nature of friendship. When the narrator is kidnapped by some rabid rednecks, Mr. Grey comes to the rescue. Writing primarily in dialogue, White gives us a coming-of-age story that is good-hearted from beginning to end.
Pub Date: May 18, 1992
ISBN: 0-941423-71-9
Page Count: 300
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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