Ellen and Corey have the chance to camp overnight at the Seattle zoo; but what was planned as a special birthday present nearly proves to be the death of them when they come up against an escaped convict who thinks of the zoo as a safe hideout. When their parents' flight is delayed, Ellen (12) and Corey (8) are afraid they'll have to miss the anticipated campout, but they're able to convince the zoo administrator that their parents have just pulled into the parking lot. Anxious to leave (her daughter is giving birth), she lets them stay after-hours, with the result that the children are left unchaperoned overnight. Meanwhile, convict Tony Haymes plans to kidnap a rare baby monkey and use the ransom to flee to Mexico. As the kids are separated at various points—each trying to elude Haymes, find the other, and rescue the monkey—their experience becomes more and more frightening. When they are finally rescued, it's due in part to Ellen's ability to communicate nonverbally with the elephants. For readers who can swallow the supposition that Ellen can command a bull elephant telepathically, the book works pretty well as a suspense novel. Kehret's attention to detail is less than perfect (How does Ellen know that the trail of peanut shells she follows was left by her brother?), but she arranges the children's isolation at the zoo realistically enough, and the plot is scary. Acceptable additional fare. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-525-65083-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1991
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
“Hear, and listen well, my friends, and I will tell you a tale that has been told for a thousand years and more.” It’s not exactly a rarely told tale, either, though this complete rendition is distinguished by both handsome packaging and a prose narrative that artfully mixes alliterative language reminiscent of the original, with currently topical references to, for instance, Grendel’s “endless terror raids,” and the “holocaust at Heorot.” Along with being printed on heavy stock and surrounded by braided borders, the text is paired to colorful scenes featuring a small human warrior squaring off with a succession of grimacing but not very frightening monsters in battles marked by but a few discreet splashes of blood. Morpurgo puts his finger on the story’s enduring appeal—“we still fear the evil that stalks out there in the darkness . . . ”—but offers a version unlikely to trouble the sleep of more sensitive readers or listeners. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7636-3206-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
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