A talented novelist (Hating Alison Ashley, 1985) turns in ten compact, briskly varied short tales. The selections include the gleeful ``Little Beast,'' in which the besieged outcast at a boarding school wreaks heady revenge on her tormentors; and the guilt-laden ``Octopi,'' about a young girl who uses pathos to insinuate herself into the life of a new school secretary. In ``The Key,'' gang-initiate Kevin has a change of heart and short- circuits a burglary, while ``We'll Look After You'' artfully twists Good Samaritanship into a nightmare Ö la Stephen King's Misery. Pithy, provocative, and plenty of fun. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-670-83212-X
Page Count: 134
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
Escaping the abusive conditions of a group foster home, Robert takes to the rails to seek the mother he doesn't remember. Little Abiah tags along; then they're joined by a homeless dog, ``Mutt.'' At first, the world of 1932 in a large, mountainous, but undesignated part of the US is as cruel as the grasping people the boys have just escaped—even the man who offers them a few cents for selling his mistletoe turns out to be in cahoots with toughs who steal their money before they can give the man his share. Abiah is swept away on a freight that Robert can't jump onto in time; Mutt is lost under the ice; Robert himself finally makes it to Mill Springs, only to discover that his mother has moved on. He does find an old woman, in desperate need of care, in his mother's house. Abiah turns up on Christmas day (the day after Robert's 13th birthday), and the two are given the chance of sharing the woman's home with the financial help of concerned neighbors. Pendergraft (The Legend of Daisy Flowerdew, 1990) has talent and writes with vigor, but her details are so exaggerated that the reader is distanced by their implausibility rather than touched by the children's plight. Almost every character is a villain, an angel, or, like a runaway Robert meets, the victim of melodrama: his parents had insisted on sending him to a private school where his brother had been brain damaged by a beating. The author's use of dialect is flavorful but inconsistent: narrator Robert sometimes lapses into standard English when he quotes his own dialogue. A flawed effort. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 18, 1991
ISBN: 0-399-22102-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991
Australia's answer to Robert Munsch and Barry Polisar offers a collection of wacky tales, each featuring a ghost, a skeleton, or at least a twist of magic. In ``Without a Shirt,'' Brian's dog keeps fetching human bones that try to rearrange themselves; the ``Skeleton on the Dunny'' haunts an outhouse; young Anton saves his beloved lighthouse with the help of musical ghosts playing ``Lighthouse Blues.'' In ``The Strap Box Flyer,'' a huckster sells wonderful glue that works on anything—for just four hours; Greg's composter dad kills a plague of flies with his aromatic ``Cow Dung Custard.'' David has super powers when he wears his pink ``Wunderpants''; and, thanks to his new ``Lucky Lips,'' every female Marcus meets must kiss him—fine, until he falls into the pigpen. A shadowy, macabre jacket illustration makes an effective visual hook for a collection with broad humor and twisted plotlines that will especially appeal to readers without the patience for mood pieces or complex character development. A companion volume, Uncanny, is being published simultaneously. (Short stories. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-670-84175-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991
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