A page-turner that doesn’t offer all the answers.
Budding cowboy Danny is faced with a crushing moral dilemma.
His border collie, Banjo, feral when adopted seven years ago, has been accused by a neighboring rancher’s sons of joining wild dogs in attacking their flock. They say they had to shoot at Banjo to stop him. Now the neighbor wants Banjo to be euthanized, claiming he’s dangerous. Danny knows Banjo wouldn’t attack livestock, but his dog has clearly been winged by a bullet. His earnest father allows the 13-year-old two days to find Banjo another home. When no one will agree to take the dog, Danny and his older brother bring him into the mountains and drive him away with gunfire, hoping he’ll recall his feral background and survive—then claim to have shot him. But Danny knows Banjo’s chances are uncertain, and he suffers agonizing guilt: He’s failed Banjo and deceived his father. Meanwhile, talented horse-whisperer Meg finds Banjo and cares for him but is determined to discover who would abandon such a good dog. Although Banjo’s placement is eventually resolved and his innocence proven, the moral ambiguity of the teen’s situation not only dominates the narrative, but will leave many readers wondering what other course he could have taken. White-default characters are carefully drawn, and the sustained suspense makes for an engaging tale set in rural Oregon.
A page-turner that doesn’t offer all the answers. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-375-84264-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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