The author of Get Shorty turns to children’s books with a character study of three very different types. Antwan is a Hollywood Hills coyote who talks like he’s straight from the ’hood; Buddy is a German shepherd, a former movie star whose light has gone dim; Miss Betty is the show poodle who lives with Buddy. When Antwan chases a mouse into Buddy and Miss Betty’s back yard, he ends up moving right in—the idea is that he and Buddy are going to trade experiences, he as a pampered house pet and Buddy as a wild dog of the hills. Leonard’s characterization is both broad and gentle: each canine begins as a stereotype, but it soon becomes apparent that all three have become the roles they play in life, and it’s the growing friendship that allows each to explore different personae. The plot meanders a bit, with a catnapping and a movie audition thrown in to complicate the relationships, but in the end, it’s a cheerful and ultimately bittersweet look at how life choices shape who we are. Good fun. (Fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-06-054404-X
Page Count: 160
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
The poem/novel ends with only a trace of hope; there are no pat endings, but a glimpse of beauty wrought from brutal reality.
Billie Jo tells of her life in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl: Her mother dies after a gruesome accident caused by her father's leaving a bucket of kerosene near the stove; Billie Jo is partially responsible—fully responsible in the eyes of the community—and sustains injuries that seem to bring to a halt her dreams of playing the piano.
Finding a way through her grief is not made easier by her taciturn father, who went on a drinking binge while Billie Joe's mother, not yet dead, begged for water. Told in free-verse poetry of dated entries that span the winter of 1934 to the winter of 1935, this is an unremittingly bleak portrait of one corner of Depression-era life. In Billie Jo, the only character who comes to life, Hesse (The Music of Dolphins, 1996, etc.) presents a hale and determined heroine who confronts unrelenting misery and begins to transcend it.
The poem/novel ends with only a trace of hope; there are no pat endings, but a glimpse of beauty wrought from brutal reality. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 978-0-590-36080-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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