On the surface, ninth-grader Tony Sharp leads the life of an average teen: he listens to rock, has a part-time job, and is having his first romance. But Tony's mother has multiple sclerosis; her illness leaves him wavering between a sense of helplessness over her condition and resentment that he doesn't have a mother who can care for him. Tony escapes from the pain by caring for an injured herring gull that he finds in a cave; but as the bird's wing heals, Mrs. Sharp's health fails. In a symbolic gesture, Tony releases the healthy gull the morning following his mother's death. Unfortunately, weak characterization, overly sentimental writing, and an almost nonexistent plot badly mar a potentially good story. The mother-son relationship is poorly developed and doesn't give a real sense of their intimacy between the two; as a result, Tony's frustrated outbursts sound hollow. (Fiction. 11+)
Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1991
ISBN: 0-688-10597-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
After witnessing the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, Daniel is suddenly transported, at age 14, from his comfortable life in Frankfurt to a Polish ghetto, then to Auschwitz and Buchenwald—losing most of his family along the way, seeing Nazi brutality of both the casual and the calculated kind, and recording atrocities with a smuggled camera (``What has happened to me?...Who am I? Where am I going?''). Matas, explicating an exhibit of photos and other materials at the new United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, creates a convincing composite youth and experience—fictional but carefully based on survivors' accounts. It's a savage story with no attempt to soften the culpability of the German people; Daniel's profound anger is easier to understand than is his father's compassion or his sister's plea to ``chose love. Always choose love.'' Daniel survives to be reunited, after the war, with his wife-to-be, but his dying friend's last word echoes beyond the happy ending: ``Remember...'' An unusual undertaking, effectively carried out. Chronology; glossary. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-590-46920-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
A well-written, succinct summary covers the major controversies over use or preservation. Distinguishing among conservationists who support ``multiple use'' (including recreation, logging, and mining), preservationists who want to keep wild land untouched, and environmentalists who link preservation to global environmental problems, Dolan presents the history of national parks, forests, and wilderness areas and the threats they face. To personalize the issues, he includes italicized examples: e.g., smog might keep the reader from seeing much at the Grand Canyon. But Dolan's ideas for avoiding crowding problems suffer from somewhat patronizing phrasing, and parts of the book are already dated: some species of salmon have been declared endangered (Dolan does mention the effects of this decision), and no mention is made of Bush's attempt to redefine wetlands to allow housing development, a major flip-flop for the ``environmental president.'' In general, though, Dolan fairly presents all sides, calling in the end for compromise. Extensive source notes and bibliography; b&w photo insert and index not seen. (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: April 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-531-11062-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
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