Doyle neatly splits his narrative in two with this dual look at huskies and raw adolescent angst. When sullen teen Grainne’s real mother returns to Ireland from America, step-mom Sandra and her sons decide to give the newly reunited pair some room. They hightail it to Finland where 12-year-old Johnny and ten-year-old Tom will accompany their mother on a wild dogsled trek. The two have a fabulous time until the night their mother’s sled doesn’t join with the other adventurers at the end of a run. Immediately they decide that finding Sandra is up to them and so head out into the frozen night. In the story lines of both Grainne and the boys, finding your mother is a simultaneously painful and deeply rewarding process. The rough-and-tumble nature of siblings, with all its love and casual cruelty, comes through loud and clear in Doyle’s crisp prose. Though the variegated ages of the characters may give this title difficulty finding its audience, the story is a pleasure to discover. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-439-02356-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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