From Kinsey-Warnock (As Long as There Are Mountains, p. 875, etc.), a short novel about growing up that opens at the end of the school year in 1969 and closes the next spring. Arlis, 12, is relieved to be away from home, where, during a field trip, he stripped to his underwear to wallow in mud like a pig, was urinated on by classmates, and tricked into eating a worm sandwich. At his grandparents' Vermont farm for the summer, Arlis warms to his grandfather, who teaches Arlis about the call of the loons during a fishing trip. Arlis's carelessness with a fishing line leads to a loon's death; when the elderly man encourages Arlis to take up running, he tries, quits, tries again, then easily makes the cross-country team, turns a tormentor into a friend, reconciles with his father, who goes in a few pages from an overworked lawyer to a runner who sings in the choir. In a final contrivance from which Arlis emerges a hero, he drives his mother through snowstorm to the hospital where she gives birth. Kinsey-Warnock trivializes life-and-death events with more prosaic material; in the meantime, pieces of plot remain undeveloped, e.g., an essay, mentioned only when Arlis is assigned it, and when he turns it in, is greeted with ``This is good, Arlis. Very good. I didn't know you could write like this.'' Every chapter contains emotional scenes or rhapsodic passages on nature, but they are glued on rather than transpiring naturally in the story. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-525-65237-X
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1997
The Baudelaire children—Violet, 14, Klaus, 12, and baby Sunny—are exceedingly ill-fated; Snicket extracts both humor and horror from their situation, as he gleefully puts them through one terrible ordeal after another. After receiving the news that their parents died in a fire, the three hapless orphans are delivered into the care of Count Olaf, who “is either a third cousin four times removed, or a fourth cousin three times removed.” The villainous Count Olaf is morally depraved and generally mean, and only takes in the downtrodden yet valiant children so that he can figure out a way to separate them from their considerable inheritance. The youngsters are able to escape his clutches at the end, but since this is the first installment in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there will be more ghastly doings. Written with old-fashioned flair, this fast-paced book is not for the squeamish: the Baudelaire children are truly sympathetic characters who encounter a multitude of distressing situations. Those who enjoy a little poison in their porridge will find it wicked good fun. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-440766-7
Page Count: 162
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-87175-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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