A well-researched but lackluster children’s book.
Australian author Williams (May We Call You Grandpa?, 2013) offers young readers insight into the lives of the small crustaceans called yabbies.
Yelverton is a yabbie, a shellfish that lives at the bottom of a dam, and in this book aimed at a young audience, he explains his life cycle and some of the hazards of his dangerous existence. The nature illustrations that accompany Yelverton’s casual explanations give a somewhat scientific flavor to the book’s early sections, as Williams depicts the “berry” eggs under a mother yabbie’s tail, the growth of a yabbie from egg to egg-head, and small yabbies eating a larger yabbie alive when the older crustacean’s shell is in a soft state. The images, with their diagramlike flair, are among the most intriguing in the book; others are uneven, particularly depictions of birds. As Yelverton catalogs the dangers of his life under the dam, he shares general environmental concerns about subjects such as dirty water and humans’ yabbie traps. The yabbie seems unconcerned by the dangers, however, which may cause young readers not to empathize with him. His limited point of view falters about halfway through the text, when he relies on a passing swallow and seagull to tell him about the fate of captured yabbies. Although the author ably handles the subjects of danger and death early on, she neglects to explain exactly what humans use yabbies for. Are they eaten, used for bait or both? Australian audiences might be more familiar with the little crustaceans, but Americans may be baffled. Other readers may want to look up details the book leaves out, such as the region of the world in which yabbies may be found.
A well-researched but lackluster children’s book.Pub Date: April 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-1483623580
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
TV viewers may be reminded of the Coneheads on Saturday Night Live (or My Favorite Martian), but this seriocomic,...
A refugee from a doomed planet, a teenage alien attempts—awkwardly—to blend into the landscape of an unsuspecting California town.
In this YA novel, a small family of extraterrestrials, actually reptilian but genetically modified to (hopefully) fit into human society, flees its dying world, concealing its spaceship near the small desert community of Prickly Pear, California. Using forged birth certificates (hinted to be based on Barack Obama’s) and unlikely names, the “Sminths”—mother, Crick; father, Watson; and daughter, Cricket—try to acclimate as newcomers. But their unfamiliarity with human customs and spoken English mark them instantly as oddballs, perhaps Russian. Cricket, who had no choice going on this one-way adventure, is especially moody and defiant (openly eating insects), and she is categorized as learning disabled at her school. The faculty pairs the attractive Cricket—to her discomfort—with a reluctant guardian in the form of another troubled teen, Tom Martinez, who lost his arm in a mysterious accident. Manos (Lucifer’s Revenge, 2012, etc.) has a go at the none-too-fresh YA fantasy trope of a modern-day high school “transfer student” who is actually a fantastic creature (vampire, witch, alien, you choose). Fortunately his grade A storytelling and insights into characterizations make the material enjoyable. With first-person narrative chores shared between Cricket and Tom, there is much culture-shock comedy, incipient romance, and some drama about the Sminths’ fear of discovery. Stock villainy is provided by a bullying biker gang, which overwhelms the tiny local police force, and a suspicious businessman who serves as town mayor. The official has long tried to turn Prickly Pear into a Roswell-level tourist trap with chintzy UFO displays (yet fails to recognize the real thing right in front of him). Even those Disney-esque threats and some too-convenient plot twists are given intelligent treatment by the author, who also expertly captures Cricket’s tart voice: a supersmart nonhuman nonetheless beset by the typical teen rigors of gym class, a school dance, mean girls, hormonal boys, and immigrant parents who are frequently embarrassing in their lack of assimilation. Things never get too dark, and the tone is comfortable for more mature YA readers.
TV viewers may be reminded of the Coneheads on Saturday Night Live (or My Favorite Martian), but this seriocomic, alien-in-school yarn skillfully maintains orbit and comedy-drama equilibrium.Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68046-603-4
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Melange Books - Fire and Ice YA
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Whip-smart plotting makes this adventure an ideal romp.
In this middle-grade fantasy debut, the removal of pennies from a water fountain unleashes magical forces both good and evil.
Matthew Patterson’s 13th birthday isn’t going too well. Football tryouts are a disaster when school bully Dan Valdner trips him. Worse, the kindhearted Kelsey Robins can only look on while the coach boots Matthew from the field. Later, his parents take him and his best friend, Johnny Barnes, to the family’s favorite restaurant, The Inn of the Eleventh Ray. In the restaurant’s courtyard is a stone fountain featuring sculptures of odd creatures with “long arms, pointy fingers, and long, curling tails.” Matthew impulsively grabs three pennies from the fountain, little realizing that the act is noticed high above, and far below, the restaurant. In caves deep within the Earth, Bolterkein, ruler of the Wish Stealers, dispatches his agents—Glut, Sluth, and Tanger—to help steal the energy from the wishes that Matthew has placed in jeopardy. Meanwhile, on “the brightest star in the sky,” Empress Hopreme of the Wish Defenders responds with her own team: Nova, Dodd, and Byno. Their mission is to aid Matthew in returning the coins to the fountain within 24 hours or Bolterkein will be one step closer to escaping his subterranean prison. For their collaboration, Holm and Foster deliver a bouncy adventure with some exceptionally daring twists. First among them is that the wishes made with Matthew’s pennies are coming undone. WNBA all-star Judy Hughes loses her skills on the court, and the elderly Clay Williams finds that his wife, Edith, is once again gravely ill. That the third coin belonged to the protagonist’s parents—which sets Matthew himself unraveling—further jolts this creative story. Trim, capable prose transports readers, as when “Clouds slowly drifted by the pinkish-purple sunset....The planet’s surface was covered with large islands surrounded by turquoise-blue water.” After time spent at a water park and in a car chase, the narrative ties several threads together in a remarkable bow, highlighting the role of hard work in life.
Whip-smart plotting makes this adventure an ideal romp.Pub Date: March 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-578-20056-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Holmade Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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