The fifth and latest in Marsden’s series about a group of Australian teenagers who find themselves in the middle of a war follows the adolescent guerrilla fighters as they try to survive in an Australia occupied by enemy forces, while inflicting some damage on the enemy along the way. The five kids (who in the first book, Tomorrow, When the War Began, had returned home from a camping trip to find their country occupied and their families gone) have now become fairly experienced soldiers. Although the five are in theory backed up by adult soldiers, the grownups have been out of touch for so long that the teenagers are virtually on their own. Deciding that they have to try and do something, even if there is not much chance of success and even if it means being discovered by the enemy soldiers, the group plans to infiltrate an enemy airfield and blow it up. Miraculously, the group succeeds, and, even more miraculously, they all come out of the experience alive. Between the day-to-day struggle for survival and the desire for revenge that they feel, the personality of each character emerges, displaying moments of bravery, as well as fear, despair, jealousy, and even pettiness. A fascinating portrayal of the dynamics that occur within a group whose members are dependent on each other, this is part survival, part adventure, and part war tale, with plenty of undercurrents of romance and hints of sexual tension thrown into the mix. It is exciting, dramatic, and laced with violence, while also capturing the drudgery and boredom that is part of the group’s daily life. The contrast between the difficult lives they now lead and their former comfortable and peaceful lives as normal Australian teenagers is especially poignant. Something for everyone. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-395-96054-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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