In this riveting futuristic novel, Spaz, a teenage boy with epilepsy, makes a dangerous journey in the company of an old man and a young boy. The old man, Ryter, one of the few people remaining who can read and write, has dedicated his life to recording stories. Ryter feels a kinship with Spaz, who unlike his contemporaries has a strong memory; because of his epilepsy, Spaz cannot use the mind probes that deliver entertainment straight to the brain and rot it in the process. Nearly everyone around him uses probes to escape their life of ruin and poverty, the result of an earthquake that devastated the world decades earlier. Only the “proovs,” genetically improved people, have grass, trees, and blue skies in their aptly named Eden, inaccessible to the “normals” in the Urb. When Spaz sets out to reach his dying younger sister, he and his companions must cross three treacherous zones ruled by powerful bosses. Moving from one peril to the next, they survive only with help from a proov woman. Enriched by Ryter’s allusions to nearly lost literature and full of intriguing, invented slang, the skillful writing paints two pictures of what the world could look like in the future—the burned-out Urb and the pristine Eden—then shows the limits and strengths of each. Philbrick, author of Freak the Mighty (1993) has again created a compelling set of characters that engage the reader with their courage and kindness in a painful world that offers hope, if no happy endings. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-08758-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
Butler’s first novel has plausibility problems, but readers may be drawn to the characters inhabiting this post-holocaust fantasy. Over a century after the destruction of civilization by a giant meteor’s impact, the former state of Maine has become the country of Maynor, governed by a vaguely-defined Rulership that stays in power through a corps of red-coated, musket-bearing Guards. Born with a webbed left hand and the ability to see the future, young Leora breaks away from her village and cruel stepfamily, taking a captured baby “birmba” (a mutant bear-ape) back to its mother, finding temporary shelter in a settlement of serape-wearing descendants of migrant workers, then going on to help a band of women foment a rebellion. The plot hinges on contrivances, from conveniently overheard conversations to a company of guards that fails to post sentries and sleeps while a munitions storehouse next door is emptied; in contrast, Leora’s painful self-consciousness is realistically drawn, and the fearsome, gentle, intelligent birmbas make engaging companions for her. Devoted fans of the post-disaster genre may take to this, but for depth of character and detail, there are far more precisely imagined outsider tales, from Eloise McGraw’s Moorchild (1996) to Anne Mazer’s Oxboy (1993). (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7894-2489-4
Page Count: 282
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
Layton’s zany alien family comes to Earth in search of humans, but with only guidebook descriptions of what people look like, it’s easy to make mistakes—especially when their flying saucer lands at the zoo! “They don’t have tails and they mostly stand on two feet,” reads the father, effectively ruling out kangaroos and tigers as potential people. The smallest alien is anxious to snap a picture of penguins, but it turns out they aren’t human—people don’t have wings. After searching the “entire planet” (that is, within the confines of the zoo walls), the aliens finally do find a creature to match their guidebook’s description perfectly, and to make Darwin smile. The goofy illustrations deploy a childlike sense of fun; the aliens are pleasant creatures with round patchwork bodies and eyes on stalks, and the gregarious zoo animals will ring true for the animal cracker set. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8037-2381-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
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