Though there are a few treats to be found here, readers of prior editions will be sad to discover it’s not chock-full.
In this fifth annual volume of the Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide, young people are spread throughout a futuristic universe filled with robots and piloting spaceships of their own.
The everyday childhood challenges that they face are nothing new, just tweaked to a distant future. In “The Ground Shifted,” by anne gibson, orphan Rosetta travels in a support hoverpod instead of a wheelchair, as she struggles with vertigo, while dismembered survivors of an asteroid crash in Sherry D. Ramsey’s “Machine Language” are left to colonize an unknown planet, their limbs replaced with multicolored prosthetics, painting a picture of a kind of transhuman existence. In “The Last Laugh,” William B. Wolfe offers a bit of humor with the speculative tale in which schoolkids challenge the Authorities in a world where jokes are illegal. Unlike last year’s Guide, this anthology’s stories feature mostly white-default characters. In stories where children of color are prominent, they are stereotyped, as in Holly Schofield’s “Woomie Saves the Day,” in which protagonist Kayla Ng’s mother advises her to “get zen” and Kayla’s skill with chopsticks is remarked on; Though Aubrey Campbell’s “The Last Flower on Earth” is an endearing story of a friendship between a lost Japanese girl, Misaki, and a lone robot, cultural details are largely limited to nomenclature (Shenyin Moon) and food (mochi).
Though there are a few treats to be found here, readers of prior editions will be sad to discover it’s not chock-full. (Science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-940924-42-7
Page Count: 394
Publisher: Dreaming Robot
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Salva Dut is 11 years old when war raging in the Sudan separates him from his family. To avoid the conflict, he walks for years with other refugees, seeking sanctuary and scarce food and water. Park simply yet convincingly depicts the chaos of war and an unforgiving landscape as they expose Salva to cruelties both natural and man-made. The lessons Salva remembers from his family keep him from despair during harsh times in refugee camps and enable him, as a young man, to begin a new life in America. As Salva’s story unfolds, readers also learn about another Sudanese youth, Nya, and how these two stories connect contributes to the satisfying conclusion. This story is told as fiction, but it is based on real-life experiences of one of the “Lost Boys” of the Sudan. Salva and Nya’s compelling voices lift their narrative out of the “issue” of the Sudanese War, and only occasionally does the explanation of necessary context intrude in the storytelling. Salva’s heroism and the truth that water is a source of both conflict and reconciliation receive equal, crystal-clear emphasis in this heartfelt account. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-547-25127-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2010
SEEN & HEARD
In this series debut, Maggie Sinclair tracks down a dognapper and solves a mystery about the noises in the walls of her Brooklyn brownstone apartment building. The 12-year-old heroine, who shares a middle name—Brooklyn—with her twin brother, Finn, is juggling two dogwalking jobs she’s keeping secret from her parents, and somehow she attracts the ire of the dogs’ former walker. Maggie tells her story in the first person—she’s self-possessed and likable, even when her clueless brother invites her ex–best friend, now something of an enemy, to their shared 12th birthday party. Maggie’s attention to details helps her to figure out why dogs seem to be disappearing and why there seem to be mice in the walls of her building, though astute readers will pick up on the solution to at least one mystery before Maggie solves it. There’s a brief nod to Nancy Drew, but the real tensions in this contemporary preteen story are more about friendship and boy crushes than skullduggery. Still, the setting is appealing, and Maggie is a smart and competent heroine whose personal life is just as interesting as—if not more than—her detective work. (Mystery. 10-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 967-1-59990-525-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
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