Flush Review & Ratings

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Flush Review

IN the spring of 2002 I wrote about Carl Hiaasen's first children's book, HOOT:
"Carl Hiaasen does an incredible job of showing the different styles of activism that different people resort to. He presents the reader with the contemporary clash of free enterprise versus global ecological issues. He has a lot to say between the lines about parenting, and he has some great insights into the methods of dealing with bullies.
"I've never read his adult books, but I sure hope Hiaasen writes more books for kids. HOOT is one heck of a first step into the world of children's literature."
So I was, of course, ecstatic that both the 2003 Newbery committee and 2003 Best Books for Young Adults committee recognized HOOT.
I was somewhat less thrilled about having to wait three long years for the pleasure of reading a second children's book by Hiaasen. And while FLUSH is a completely different story, everything that delighted me three years ago about reading HOOT is equally applicable to FLUSH.
"The deputy told me to empty my pockets: two quarters, a penny, a stick of bubble gum, and a roll of grip tape for my skateboard. It was pitiful.
" 'Go on inside. He's waiting for you,' the deputy said.
"My dad was sitting alone at a bare metal table. He looked pretty good, all things considered. He wasn't even handcuffed.
" 'Happy Father's Day,' I said.
"He stood up and gave me a hug. 'Thanks, Noah,' he said."
So begins FLUSH, the story of what happens after Paine Underwood pulls the plug on the Coral Queen and willingly gets arrested for doing so.
The Coral Queen is a three-tiered casino boat owned by Dusty Muleman. Dusty has been making a killing off of the boat's operations because he worked a deal with the local Native Americans to park the boat in a marina on their lands, give them a cut of the take and, thus, avoid having to take the customers a few miles offshore to gamble like all the other casino boat operators are required to do. What Noah's dad is so hot about is that he is sure that the raw sewage periodically washing up on Thunder Beach is the result of the Coral Queen's holding tanks being emptied illegally into the water.
A 60 Minutes piece about the author that was broadcast last month, "Florida: 'A Paradise of Scandals' "http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/15/60minutes/main688458.shtml, introduces Hiaasen:
"In a little less than a century, the state of Florida has been transformed from a largely uninhabited swamp to the fourth-largest state in the union. And no one has written about that transformation more successfully than Carl Hiaasen.
"Part humorist, part muckraker, his satirical novels about greed, crime and corruption in the Sunshine State have become fixtures on the best-seller list and embraced by influential literary critics who compare him to Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken.
"He is also an award-winning children?s author and a former investigative reporter-turned-columnist for the Miami Herald.
"And he has made a career of documenting, analyzing and interpreting what may be the most bizarre state in the union -- and one, Hiaasen says, is 'a victim of its own geography.' "
In the 60 Minutes interview Hiaasen talked about how being out on the water in his skiff is like church for him. In that regard, reading FLUSH feels like you are peering in even closer at the heart of Carl Hiaasen.
When I discussed HOOT three years ago, I mentioned that it contained humor, a bit of sadness, and a touch of suspense. All three qualities are once again present in FLUSH. So are the wildly quirky characters, from the bully (Jasper Muleman Jr.), to the brute (Luno), to the buxom blonde (Shelly), the bum (Lice Peeking), the bumbling attorney (Mr. Shine), and the mysterious pirate.
Carl Hiaasen is a master at storytelling. That he has utilized his superb talents to once again write a satirical novel about greed, crime and corruption in the Sunshine State for children (and me) is cause for celebration.
Thanks, Carl!

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Loch: A Novel Review & Ratings

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Loch: A Novel Review

A boy nicknamed loch and his sister zaidee are involuntarily going on an expedition to a Vermont lake to look for modern plesiosaurs with their father, Dr. Sam. Dr. Sam is a marine biologist, and he works for a despicable man named Mr. Cavenger. Loch doesn't think they will find anything, but then, loch discovers a baby Plesiosaur and the knowledge that Cavenger doesn't want to just find the creatures, but kill them. Zindel does a good job in telling an epic adventure with movie-like detail! Loch does have many horror elements to it such as the plesiosaur killing some people and some chilling descriptions of peoples remains being found after one of the dinosaurs were done killing them, but its more of an adventure to save the prehistoric creatures with the main characters, Loch and Zaidee. This is another one of Paul Zindels best works; it is everything that I read a book for. It seems to me that a book that is about sea horror is a lot better than any other book. I would give it 41/2 stars out of 5.

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Williwaw Review & Ratings

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Williwaw Review

Tom Bodett's latest opus is a slender volume, and in fact it's really a longish novella. It has the same tone and pacing of his End of the Road tales.
The story concerns two young adolescent siblings, September and Ivan Crane. They live in the "bush" of Alaska, the wild and untamed areas far from power lines and telephone hookups. Their father, a commercial fisherman, must of necessity leave the children unattended for weeks at a stretch.
They stay in touch via radio communication, at least until Ivan fries the transceiver. Now, the kids have only a week to make enough money to repair the radio before Dad calls again. That means trips across Bag Bay, and in the autumn of the year, the dreaded, violent storms known as williwaw can spring up at a moment's notice. One such storm claimed the children's mother seven years before.
For a mainstream novel such as this, I was surprised at the total absence of any objectionable material. This book could fit very comfortably of a middle-school library shelf -- and yet it is not a "children's" book. This is a book for any reader who enjoys a page-turner.

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X-Isle Review & Ratings

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X-Isle Review

The author of The Various, Celandine and Winter Wood was kind enough to send me a copy of his latest book after it was released in the U.K. In the U.S., the book won't be released until July 13, 2010. Mark that date on your calendar, kiddos. Or better yet, pre-order it. If you're a boy who likes fantasy featuring guys like you, or a girl (like one I know) who prefers stories where the main characters are boys, get this book. If the climax of the Harry Potter series fulfilled all your hopes for a desperate battle of survival in a ruined school, get this book. If you're concerned about what might happen to mankind if the polar ice-caps melt and the oceans rise, get this book. If you like to squirm like a hooked worm while villains menace and suspense builds, get this book. If you've ever wondered whether your farts could be used as a weapon, get this book. Have I missed anybody? That's all right. Get this book anyway and give it to someone who fits one of these descriptions. Then look for them a day or two later with their nails bitten to the quick and a gleam of haunted triumph in their eyes.
The "reality TV" programs of recent years have taught us to associate "survival" with the question of who gets "voted off the island." In a possible, near-future Britain, this question isn't just a metaphor. The floods have come up and, several years later, they still haven't gone down. All that remains of civilization are a few people scratching a living out of the little dry ground that remains. They depend for survival on trade with the Ecks family - three burly brothers who use their SCUBA diving skills to bring up supplies and tinned food from the murky depths.
Isaac, Luke, and Amos Ecks and their associate Moko are armed and ready to defend themselves, their boat, and the island - formerly the site of the Tab Hill Girls' High School - where they process and store the treasures they obtain by either diving or trading. They are ruled by the iron hand of their father, a terrifying religious fanatic named Preacher John. And they are served by the slave labor of a group of boys whose parents bought their passage to the island, hoping life would be better for them there.
In some ways, life on Ecks Isle (or, as it is more often spelled, X Isle) is better than the mainland alternative. The boys are regularly fed. They have a safe, sheltered place to sleep. They are kept physically active and enjoy the company of kids their own age. But that's the best you can say for an island where the work force is pushed to the limit of their endurance, fed starvation rations, terrorized and abused by a couple of teenaged capos, and kept going through all this by the knowledge that, if they weaken, they will be "voted off the island." And in their case, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll make it back to the mainland.
The last boys brought to the island are Baz and Ray, two youngsters who specialize in survival, each in his own way. Baz instinctively moves to protect more vulnerable people like Ray. Ray, for his part, is sustained by an extraordinary talent for keeping secrets, and by a sometimes frightening streak of ruthlessness. In a few weeks, they become part of the tight-knit group of boys who have learned to survive in the nightmare world of X Isle. Nevertheless they bear witness to hideous cruelty and tragic loss. As Preacher John's religious mania reaches the point where human sacrifice may be the inevitable next step, and as the Ecks brothers' disregard for the boys' lives puts them in imminent danger of being drowned in the floodwaters, the boys must move ahead quickly with a desperate, hare-brained plan that is, after all, their only hope.
X Isle will spark a fantastic array of images in your mind. Images of both the best and the worst that people can do to each other in a life-or-death struggle. Images of a world where a change in the color of the water can make the difference between despair and hope. Images of an opportunity for one small group of decent kids to start a new life -- if they can stay alive.
Some of the surprises in the story may not surprise you. I spent the whole book knowing something Baz didn't figure out until the end; and though I had no reason to expect him to be forced on board the divers' boat at the climax of the story, I had already told myself: "That's all this book needs to make the suspense as unbearable as possible." It's sometimes amazing to be right. It's sometimes fun to know something the main character doesn't know. And it's always an intense ride when Steve Augarde is at the controls. If you've read his Touchstone trilogy, you'll know what I mean. But even if you haven't, that's all right. Get this book. It will shake up your ideas about fantasy, flatulence, and young-adult fiction.

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Shark Beneath the Reef Review & Ratings

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Shark Beneath the Reef Review

The book, Shark Beneath the Reef, by Jean Craighead George is a wonderfully intriguing story and a magic to read. The tale of an adolescent Mexican boy growing into manhood and his dreams of becoming a fisherman is all a wonderful story in itself. But put together with his family's downfall, the price of growing up, and best of all, his epic adventures in the reefs, it is phenomenal. It is a delightful and emotional way of getting a dose of a dream, let alone a truly wonderful work of art. It is a masterpiece. Shark Beneath the Reef is an excellent book to read, especially for young adults because it is very detailed and full of adventure. It is detailed and has the reader turning pages constantly. The amount of detail is so great that it gives the reader an idea of what it is like to live in another world, whether an improvement or not from the average American teen's life today. For instance, Tomás, the main character's adventures in the coral reefs make you feel like you are really there. The detail leads you to wonder what the main character's mind tells him to do, and what he will do with his unusual talents. Besides containing great detail, the book is just plain capturing! Risking lives, a family's struggle, and strong friendships spice up the story and conclude the book making you hungry for more each time. For example, when Tomás is in a life-threatening situation with a huge shark, you can feel what he must be thinking, facing the shark. This book is a wonderful way of spending your reading time. Although this book is incredibly fun and inspiring to read, there was one part of it that might not appeal to everyone. The majority of the book is to the point and a wonderful experience, but the beginning of it is just a little bit vague and difficult to understand. It may not appeal to people who don't enjoy adventure stories or nature, but it will be a dream come true to those who do. It just requires patience because in the end the whole plot ties together. Don't let the beginning discourage you to finish the book, because you will be missing out on a wonderful tale of a boy who just wanted to dream, but whose dream became reality. Shark Beneath the Reef is a "must read" book.

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