A culturally astute story that showcases the values of patience and discipline.
This debut middle-grade novel features a farmer’s son who studies with Shaolin monks in the hope of finding his missing mother.
A remote mountain village in China’s Henan province has been destroyed by an earthquake. Ten-year-old Xiao Gui and his father, Da Gui, are struggling to recover provisions from their ruined home. The quake is only the latest in a string of disasters, including the kidnapping of Xiao’s mother, Cheng Mei, and a drought that’s left the family with little to eat. Thankfully, Shaolin monks arrive with rice and water. After the monk Shi Xing Jian sees Xiao stop a thief by using rudimentary fighting skills, the teacher invites him to study kung fu (and Buddhism) at the Shaolin Temple. Da encourages his son to go, not only to fulfill his potential, but also to try to find his mother. Xiao agrees, and Da then travels to Henan’s capital, Zhengzhou, to find work. Meanwhile, it turns out that Cheng Mei has been sold into the family of a truck driver, whom she sees maybe twice a year. Mostly, she labors at the feet of a vicious mother-in-law who speaks a dialect of Mandarin that Cheng Mei only partially understands. It’s for Cheng Mei’s sake that Xiao must overcome the curse of the Gui family name, which means “ghost.” Debut novelist Blappert offers fabulous insight into the Shaolin way of life, sharing bits of knowledge that will be valuable to readers of all cultures, as when Shi Xing Jian says, “That is the thing about suffering. It is always temporary.” Although Xiao’s story arc highlights positive aspects of both modern and ancient China, the plight of his parents reveals the darker side of the society in which they live. For instance, Da eventually gets a job with a crew that obtains trees illegally from a national forest for housing developments, risking imprisonment. Readers will delight in seeing Xiao learn Buddhist principles, however, such as, “Anger is attachment,” and apply them to reversing his family’s bad luck. Blappert’s smooth prose and strong narrative structure make for an uplifting tale for all ages.
A culturally astute story that showcases the values of patience and discipline.Pub Date: April 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73366-650-3
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Schlisselthal
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Hillenbrand takes license with the familiar song (the traditional words and music are reproduced at the end) to tell an enchanting story about baby animals picked up by the train and delivered to the children’s zoo. The full-color drawings are transportingly jolly, while the catchy refrain—“See the engine driver pull his little lever”—is certain to delight readers. Once the baby elephant, flamingo, panda, tiger, seal, and kangaroo are taken to the zoo by the train, the children—representing various ethnic backgrounds, and showing one small girl in a wheelchair—arrive. This is a happy book, filled with childhood exuberance. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201804-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
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