Appalled by the experimental surgery on two baboons, African-American Jess and Australian David escape with them to the bush near where their scientist parents are working. Their barely formulated idea is to return the baboons to the wild; but Papio, with four electrodes in his head, is unnaturally passive, while big scars on Upi's chest betray why she has no stamina. At first it seems too soon to abandon them; even after both are adopted by a baboon tribe (along with the humans, who are accepted more warily), it seems necessary to protect them: Upi can't keep the pace when the baboons move on. Meanwhile, step by inexorable step, the young people become outlaws, stealing food from an African village and challenging the white hunter sent to find them—and to cruelly attack the baboons. In the end, battling the hunter, David and Jess lose sight of their purpose and unwittingly cause the destruction of the baboons. This Australian author (most notably, Baily's Bones, 1989) can be relied on for suspense—and for raising moral concerns in imaginatively provocative settings. The chief issue here is not so much animal rights as how a reasonable defense can degenerate into maintaining an untenable position at all costs. Meanwhile, some of the premises strain credulity, especially the ease with which the kids irrational—and then, in an epilogue, normal again. Still, a thought-provoking thriller with a respectable grounding in natural history and human nature. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-8037-0900-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1992
A Vietnamese youth witnesses the horrors of war in his native land, then escapes to a strange, sometimes frightening new country when his mother marries a G.I. The author signals her didactic intent with a preface, going on to tell a simple, theme-dominant story: surviving massacres and attacks, San Ho flees his village, spends three years in Saigon, then joins his mother and stepfather in a Philadelphia suburb, where the pleasures of plenty vie with his sense of dislocation. Pettit bases this on her experiences as a teacher, and much of it—San Ho's uncontrollable fright when he hears a siren, or his slow, difficult acquisition of English—has a convincing ring; other incidents, such as an attack by a gang of teenaged vandals, or San Ho's Little League grand slam that erases a three-``point'' deficit, seem like perfunctory insertions. An earnest but uneven effort to guide readers toward greater sympathy for the challenges new immigrants face. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-590-44172-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sympathetic, but sloppily written, biography that effectively presents Thomas's background, experiences, and challenges on the Supreme Court. Depicting Thomas's adroit use of his Catholic school connections, Halliburton shows how he progressed rapidly through college and law school on minority student scholarships; he attributes the justice's later beliefs to his difficulty convincing whites that his honors were based on merit, and to his problems with not being taken seriously as a corporate lawyer. Thomas's experiences in opposing the group- oriented goals of civil-rights organizations apparently hardened his positions, even as white conservatives cheered him on. Mentioning, without describing, Anita Hill's testimony, the author portrays Thomas's confirmation hearings as positive until Hill actually appeared. Presenting his subject's personal philosophy, Halliburton brings up some incongruities (like calling himself ``guilty'' of opposing apartheid). But no sources are given for quotations or specific facts (in particular, where did Halliburton get the thoughts he attributes to people?), while the bibliography lists little biographical information on Thomas. Flawed, but usable. B&w photos; chronology; index. (Biography. 12-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-89490-414-0
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Enslow
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
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