Reviews
Books for Adolescents

James Blasingame

Barbara Jo Maier

Susan Bailey

Kat Corliss

Marjorie Hazeltine

About the authors

In this issue we speak with Sneed B. Collard, III, about his novel Flash Point—the story of Luther Wright, a high school sophomore in Heartwood, Montana, who finds himself at odds with most of the folks in his small town after he quits the football team and becomes something of an environmentalist. Flash Point weaves a coming-of-age story with interesting and accurate information about the environment, forest fires, raptors, and conservation. The author is now two books into his career in young adult fiction but has already built a reputation for science writing for younger readers. From viewing ocean life 3,000 feet below the surface, to visiting the Costa Rican cloud forest, to diving on the Great Barrier Reef, to studying the native prairie of the Midwest, Collard has a wealth of scientific experience from which to draw. Northern Arizona University theater professor, Barbara Jo Maier, interviewed Sneed via e-mail from his home in Missoula, Montana.

Susan Bailey takes a look at Walter Dean Myers's new work, What They Found: Love on 145th Street. In the central story of this collection of characters' trials and tribulations, Myers's protagonist, Abeni, leads her family toward her father's dream of opening the Curl-E-Cue hair salon in Harlem after his passing. Each of the characters in Myers's book has a unique and powerful story.

Kat Corliss provides us with her take on The Unmaking of Duncan Veerick, by Betty Levin. When Duncan becomes the unwilling hero of Mrs. Valentine, an elderly widow, she embroils him in a series of events that will put him crossways with the law. He must convince the police and the entire community that he is innocent of a crime even though evidence seems to indicate the opposite. Corliss also reviews Liar by Damien Graves, another book in the scary Midnight Library series. In the first of three stories, Lauren, the new girl at school, creates a fictitious friend online to impress her classmates, but dire consequences seem likely when her creation seems to come to life. In the second story, three friends jump the ticket gate and attempt a free ride on the train but soon find themselves trapped on the train with an enraged ticket taker. In the third story a young woman knows one of her classmates is poisoning the others but can't make anyone believe her.

Marjorie Hazeltine reviews National Book Award-winner Polly Horvath's The Corps of the Bare Boned Plane, the story of two orphaned cousins, Meline and Jocelyn. The two girls are sent to live with an eccentric uncle on an island with a history, they will learn, as tragic as their own.

And finally, we take a look at Australian poet Steven Herrick's story told in verse, The Wolf, a narrative told in multiple voices about two families who share an inhospitable valley in a remote part of Australia. One family lives in love and harmony, but the other family only knows abuse and unhappiness. Both families are determined to find the animal which has been killing their sheep, either a mythical wolf or a large feral dog.

We hope you enjoy our reviews.

Flash Point

Sneed B. Collard, III. 2006. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers. 210 pp. US$15.95.

When promising linebacker Luther Wright drops football in favor of work at a wild bird sanctuary, he loses his circle of high school jock friends and disappoints his stepfather. No one—not even his best friend, his mom, or his pretty-and-popular stepsister—can change his mind. The reason Luther changes the course of his life smolders inside of him, just like the wildfires surrounding the fictional town of Heartwood, Montana. Smoke from those wildfires causes an air-quality alert, forcing the cancellation of after school sports practice. Football players in cars and pickup trucks pass Luther on his rusty 10-speed bike on their way to Ambush Point, a favorite drinking hideout. Ignoring them, Luther pedals down Elk Flats Road to Kay's place, the home of a new-to-town vet who takes in injured owls, eagles, hawks, and falcons. Caring for the broken-winged birds has captured Luther's interest but sets him far apart from family and former friends.

A second unpopular decision Luther makes is to form a club at school with his new friend, Alex, daughter of the Fish and Wildlife warden. The Student Forest Society triggers angry reactions at school, as does a town meeting held by the Forest Service. When researching forest management policies, Luther learns how complex the issues are, inspiring him to form the SFS. Townspeople, including Luther's logger stepfather, blame the government for taking away their timber-based livelihoods. Anyone with an opposing view can become a target, as Luther sadly learns. His bike is vandalized and a shotgun blast ends the life of a falcon Luther had taken out to show off to Alex.