Lewis Dodge, almost 12, is invited to go on a camping trip to Yellowstone Park with his new neighbors, the Rupes, and their 12-year-old son, Harry. Lewis's twin sister, Alison, is also asked along to help take care of the Rupes two younger children, Billy and Ariadne. At first the Dodge kids are excited by the prospect of nine days with the Rupes' lax rules—all the junk food and videos they can consume—but they soon realize that the trip will not be ideal. The Rupes are all spoiled; they think money can buy amusement, or atone for rudeness and neglect. (The Rupes don't even know that Billy is seriously nearsighted until Lewis tells them.) As Alison slavishly watches the children, Lewis comes upon a mystery: Two men have been following the Rupes' trailer since it left Washington State. When Billy finds a $100 bill in the trailer, Lewis thinks he knows what's going on. One night, thinking that everyone is out for the evening, the two men come looking for their stash. But instead of finding their money, they find the five children, kidnap them, and head toward the Canadian border. Because of the kids' ingenuity, however, they are foiled before they can leave Montana. The elder Rupes really are terrible, but the Dodge siblings come out of this diverting caper intact. The morals about the evils of lenient parenting aren't subtle, but Roberts (Caught, p. 563, etc.) delivers them well. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-689-31939-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
A more or less self-contained excerpt from the novel, in a creative abridgement done by Dickens for one of his public readings (Anthea Bell's afterword provides notes about these performances and the texts Dickens prepared for them). The fragile pen-and-ink drawings have been flooded with watercolor and given a smudged, atmospheric look. Marks (The Fisherman and His Wife, 1991, etc.) zeroes in on the basic dramatic premise of each scene—wet and dark exteriors, warm and dry interiors, characters engaged in lively conversation or sending each other meaningful looks. Marks's storytelling skills are further demonstrated by the different sizes of the pictures, their distribution, and layout—on the whole, they evocatively conjure this hearty tale, and will send readers off to the original. (Picture book. 8-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-55858-453-6
Page Count: 59
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
This middle-grade story of family, friendship and school has all the right elements, but it lacks an ignition spark.
A Rube Goldberg namesake discovers there’s more to life than inventions.
Fifth-grader Ruby Goldberg spends more time thinking about elaborate contraptions than about school or the people around her. Determined to win the gold medal that has eluded her in earlier science fairs, she focuses all her attention on the construction of her entry, ignoring her patient best friend’s needs and her grieving grandfather’s feelings. But there’s hope that, like the cartoonist and inventor she was named for, she can become a more well-rounded person. At her father’s suggestion, she collaborates with classmate Dominic, a former rival. Working together leads to friendship, and their intricate system for the delivery of a newspaper and slippers is, indeed, an engineering marvel—though she comes to understand it will never replace her grandfather’s dog. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite all come together, despite Ruby’s appropriately self-centered and sometimes-funny narration. By her own account, Ruby has been supercompetitive for years; her sudden behavior changes are therefore not quite credible. Ruby’s inventive mind is interesting, though the actual diagrammed workings of her Tomato-Matic 2000 are sadly opaque (thank goodness the narrative describes it).
This middle-grade story of family, friendship and school has all the right elements, but it lacks an ignition spark. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-8027-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
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