Carmenza, who lives in an Amazon Basin village in Colombia, contributes to her family's income by delivering shortwave radio messages to neighbors. Thus she learns of the pending arrival of hunters and arranges for her mother to provide their room and board. Meanwhile, the girl comes across a dolphin whose mouth has been maimed by a boat propeller, and later finds it further injured by a harpoon lodged in its fin. She and classmate Ramiro nurse it back to health with the aid of Ramiro's father, who knows dolphin ways and determines that the animal's ``spirit'' has also been wounded. Chapters about the dolphin alternate with those about Carmenza and Ramiro (with subplots concerning the illegal export of fauna and Carmenza's little brother's mysterious illness); the book closes with a dolphin birth. Kendall packs her quiet narrative with authentic details, occasionally allowing educational trappings to overwhelm the story (e.g., Carmenza's mother suddenly recites local history, while Ramiro provides an essay on a war with Peru). The dolphins are frequently anthropomorphized, but not too intrusively. Despite such shortcomings, an unusual book, and certainly a heartfelt one. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 15, 1993
ISBN: 0-8225-0735-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993
Curtis debuts with a ten-year-old's lively account of his teenaged brother's ups and downs. Ken tries to make brother Byron out to be a real juvenile delinquent, but he comes across as more of a comic figure: getting stuck to the car when he kisses his image in a frozen side mirror, terrorized by his mother when she catches him playing with matches in the bathroom, earning a shaved head by coming home with a conk. In between, he defends Ken from a bully and buries a bird he kills by accident. Nonetheless, his parents decide that only a long stay with tough Grandma Sands will turn him around, so they all motor from Michigan to Alabama, arriving in time to witness the infamous September bombing of a Sunday school. Ken is funny and intelligent, but he gives readers a clearer sense of Byron's character than his own and seems strangely unaffected by his isolation and harassment (for his odd look—he has a lazy eye—and high reading level) at school. Curtis tries to shoehorn in more characters and subplots than the story will comfortably bear—as do many first novelists—but he creates a well-knit family and a narrator with a distinct, believable voice. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-32175-9
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Junior Philip Marlowes or Sam Spades—or readers fed up with schoolyard miscreants—will welcome the exploits of this hard-boiled, seen-it-all seventh-grade “hall cop.” Punctuated by recorded interviews with a startled guidance counselor, incident reports filed by his indefatigable, true-blue partner and occasional diary entries and articles written by the school’s gung-ho newspaper editor, the novel tracks how a disgraced Griff (he’s stripped of his badge at one point) and his friends eventually uncover a counterfeit hall-pass ring and bring down some nefarious perps. Griff’s devotion to duty is so uncompromising it’s comical, though not always credible. The first-person voice isn’t consistent, and some of Griff’s potboiler reflections will fall on ears unprimed to noir-ish ’40s-era detective patter. Still, this is a fast-paced read characterized by knowing, kid-friendly humor, and middle-grade readers will enjoy getting to know Hallway Patrolman Carver. (Mystery. 10-12)
Pub Date: April 29, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59514-276-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2010
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