Saturday, March 1, 2008


FINISHED:

MacLeod, Doug. (2006/2007). I'm being stalked by a moonshadow. Honesdale, PA: Front Street/Boyds Mills.


[Will post my ACL review when it's finished. And, here it is:

While “rendering” their house out of animal manure, Seth, an Australian teen, and his hippie parents find themselves at odds with the town environmental health officer, Mr. Raven, setting off an ongoing feud between Seth’s father and the official. Naturally, Seth, a budding playwright who is unnaturally preoccupied with muscles on women, falls for Mr. Raven’s daughter, Miranda, hoping to woo her by following a list of “22 Ways to Know If He Is Mr. Right” (included in an appendix at the end of the novel) which he finds in a copy of a girls’ magazine. Though this is little more than a typical “wacky stories in a teen’s slice of life” novel, it should be noted that the humor here is often wonderfully dry and some of the supporting characters, especially Seth’s brother – a fingernail-painting hypochondriac who believes he may be a nudist – and members of Seth’s drama class, are humorously drawn with consistent wit. Hardly anything out of the ordinary, this is still a charming little novel, first published in Australia in 2006, that ought to leave any reader occasionally chuckling out loud. Included in this U.S. edition is a forward from the author titled “A Warning to Americans” explaining some Australian colloquialisms.]


STARTED:
Price, Charlie. (2007). Lizard people. New York: Roaring Brook.

[Also reviewing for ACL. Trying to actually get them done well before the next meeting...]

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2 comments:

DougMacLeod said...

Reading your other reviews I see you're a tough marker, so thanks for this. The foreword was actually provided by the publisher. Perhaps something we should have mentioned is that in Australia, the Liberal party is more in line with your Republican party.

Eric said...

Holy cow! Wow! I never expected one of the authors to actually see these! I feel as though I'm still developing my skills as a reviewer (with a career in public library service to children set to begin in mere months), so any feedback is appreciated. Loved the humor - especially the repeated references to the newspaper photographs with people pointing...