The ever-challenging Carnegie winner turns to New Zealand for an action-packed story that, as a colonial adventure involving new settlers and indigenous people, recalls the themes and limitations of Drift (1986): the locale and Maori are generic; but the elegantly described events, many verging on fantastical, elevate universal strivings and concerns to almost mythic stature. Charlie, his little sister Elisabeth (``Liss''), and his Maori classmate Wiremu venture onto the empty ocean floor after an earthquake to explore a long-submerged ship. A tidal wave sweeps the vessel, and them, beyond the inaccessible mountain they've seen from their home in Jade Bay, reputed to harbor the fierce, mysterious ``Koroua.'' Indeed, they meet him: a crippled ancient who feeds them and gradually wins their trust, though he doesn't know their language; together, they make their way back to Jade Bay, only to find it a ruin of long standing. On the Koroua's instruction, the boys leave him and Liss, return to the ship, and—in perilous stages—get it down a river to an intact, present-day (i.e., 1892) Jade Bay, where Charlie's parents are horrified to see him without Liss and incredulous of his story. Readers who persist through the exquisitely mapped (but not always easy to follow) adventure will be well rewarded with the unraveling of several mysteries, involving two sunken ships and more than one reunion. More compactly composed than Drift, a poetic, genuinely childlike view of a simpler world where prejudice can be dispelled by familiarity, and by the truth. A fine readaloud for sophisticated listeners. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: March 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-385-30904-X
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1993
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
This profoundly moving story is all the more impressive because of its basis in fact. Although the story is fictionalized, its most harrowing aspects are true: “Today, more than two hundred million children between the ages of five and seventeen are ‘economically active’ in the world.” Iqbal Masih, a real boy, was murdered at age 13. His killers have never been found, but it’s believed that a cartel of ruthless people overseeing the carpet industry, the “Carpet Mafia,” killed him. The carpet business in Pakistan is the backdrop for the story of a young Pakistani girl in indentured servitude to a factory owner, who also “owned” the bonds of 14 children, indentured by their own families for sorely needed money. Fatima’s first-person narrative grips from the beginning and inspires with every increment of pride and resistance the defiant Iqbal instills in his fellow workers. Although he was murdered for his efforts, Iqbal’s life was not in vain; the accounts here of children who were liberated through his and activist adults’ efforts will move readers for years to come. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85445-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
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