Rich in ideas but written in an unvaryingly even tone that distances readers from the characters’ emotional lives, and so...
At epic length, this cerebral doorstopper tracks a child’s spiritual education, his experience of different sorts of love and his discovery of a personal destiny.
The tale opens with a quote from Rudolf Steiner and is imbued with anthroposophical notions from universal evolution to the existence of two evil entities (here called “Adversary Gods”) that throw up obstacles to the world’s self-realization. It follows Meekelorr from age 4 when, unlike the adults around him, he begins to see the implike “Elementals” that govern nature, through his teenage years as a brilliant student (at, unsurprisingly, a Waldorf-style academy) battling his way to a hard-won inner balance of heart and mind. Meekelorr's schooling is punctuated by frequent visions of spirits and past lives as well as dialogues with wise teachers designed to help him “rise above the thinking that is bound to the brain.” It also includes a love life that develops from an early crush on a tutor to a deep connection with a utopian community’s blue-skinned priestess, and it concludes with his resolution to raise an army of loving warriors that will bring an end to the centuries of vicious raids that have devastated his land.
Rich in ideas but written in an unvaryingly even tone that distances readers from the characters’ emotional lives, and so deliberate of pace as to seem interminable. (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-5842-0125-0
Page Count: 532
Publisher: Steiner Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Two Rio Grande Valley high schoolers flirt with cutting out early but find reasons to finish school in this purposeful but intense tale. For Beto, it’s a combination of pride, disinterest in school and a clash with his caring but harsh father that sends him stalking away to spend the night in a Dumpster. For Beto's longtime friend Jessy, it’s a strong desire to be an artist, plus the strain of hearing her father beating her mother and knowing that her turn will be coming up one of these nights, that drives her to head for the bus to San Antonio. Using a mix of tenses and all three persons, Saldaña lays out his characters’ thoughts and emotional landscapes in broad strokes—creating a third angle of view by adding Beto’s little brother Roelito, who works his nalgas off in school but shows early signs of an ominous anger, as another narrative voice. The action takes place over the course of a little more than 12 hours, neatly capturing the spontaneity of teen impulses. Teen readers chafing at the domestic bit will find food for thought here. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55885-607-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Arte Público
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
“Death is a period / at the end of a sentence,” concludes Annaleah, the 16-year-old protagonist of Schutz’s captivating fictional follow-up to her verse memoir (I Don’t Want To Be Crazy, 2006). And much like the resolute finality fixed in that tiny dot, Annaleah spends a great deal of this free-verse novel stuck contemplating the harsh reality that her sometime boyfriend, Brian—a seemingly healthy, dark-haired, cloudy-blue–eyed 17-year-old—has just dropped dead on the basketball court. Reeling from both physical loss and lack of closure to the meaning of their clandestine relationship, Annaleah finds herself routinely visiting and addressing the deceased Brian, until a chance graveside encounter yields advice that finally begins to hit home: “Nothing grows here,” says Brian’s grandmother, “besides grass.” At first blush appearing to pull out all the melodramatic stops in classic teen fashion, these refreshingly spare lines tackle tough relational issues—intimacy, risk, abandonment—with aplomb, making for a moving tale that also effectively shows teens how life can go on. (Fiction/poetry. 14 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 970-0-545-16911-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: PUSH/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
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