This month's book reviews

Another blood and gore gross-out book
for those who like that sort of thing

Paul Zindel is the author of "Raptor." He also wrote "Rats", which was reviewed here in the August issue. He must be a guy that when he was a kid at the dinner table he liked to talk about road kill and swarms of maggots. "Raptor" is that kind of book.

Zack Novak was the teen-aged son of a paleontology professor who had just recently moved to Utah with his family. His father, Dr. Novak, was working at digging up fossils from a site where old mines had once been located. The site was a rich source of dinosaur bones and related fossils. Zack had grown up in Los Angeles and didn't much like living in Utah. He also didn't like his father's boss, Dr. Boneid, who was called "Dr. Bones". Dr. Bones was a tyrant who wanted all the credit and recognition for any discoveries that might be made. He threatened and humiliated the other scientists at the site, especially Zack's father.

When the story begins, Zack's father had been found at the entrance to one of the mineshafts. He had been seriously injured and was rushed by helicopter to a nearby hospital. He was unable to report what had caused his injuries. As readers, we knew that he had been attacked by a huge prehistoric raptor, which was trying to recover one of her eggs that Dr. Novak had discovered in the mine. Dr. Novak had thought the egg was a prank played by the college students at the site.

Young Zack Novak partners with a teen-aged Indian girl, Uta, in an effort to find out what had caused his father's injuries. Their first surprise is when the egg that his father had found hatches and a young chicken sized raptor starts running around the house. They are further surprised when the mother raptor shows up to reclaim her baby and just about demolishes the family's home. Zack and Uta come close to being eaten by the mother raptor before she runs off with her baby. Naturally, Zack and Uta have to go into the mine tunnels to find out more about the raptors.

You can imagine the suspense when the two teen-agers go down into the dark mine shafts and are surrounded by bloodthirsty dinosaurs. To add to the suspense, Dr. Bones wants to flood the mines so that he can recover the bodies of the dinosaurs. Such a find would make him world famous as well as very rich. Can the teen-agers escape the raptors? Can they escape the flooded mineshafts? Will Dr. Bones end up as dinner for one of the raptors? You have to read the book to find out.

 

Two sixth graders find out how to
publish a book and make it a bestseller

Sixth grader, Natalie Nelson, was recognized as the best writer in the school. Her closest friend, Zoe Reisman, was recognized as the best organizer in sixth grade and a girl who never took "no" as an answer. When Natalie starts writing a book and Zoe thinks it ought to be published, we have the makings of a novel by Andrew Clements called "The School Story."

For sixth graders to get a book published, there had to be some grown-ups who gave them some help. The first help came from Laura Clayton, the sixth grade teacher. She agreed to sponsor a Publishing Club, not realizing at first that it was to have only two members - Natalie and Zoe. It was Miss Clayton who encouraged Natalie to finish her manuscript and who did the first editing as the novel took shape. Since the girls were below legal age, Miss Clayton had to help them set up a bank account to fund Zoe's activities as a literary agent.

Natalie's mother was an editor working for a children's publishing house. Natalie wanted her mother to be the editor and her company to publish the book. But the girls had to figure out how to get the manuscript into Natalie's mother's hands without her knowing that it was her sixth grade daughter who really wrote it. That took some real deception, but Zoe was up to the challenge.

The reader of "The School Story" gets inside information on what goes into writing a book, getting it edited and published, and how to help turn it into a bestseller. The reader also finds out how important a literary agent is in the process. You can get all of this insight into publishing, while enjoying a good story at the same time.

 

A story set in the London of 1597
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth

The small groups of performers who put on plays in London needed a patron in order to survive in Elizabethan London. One small group performed under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth's Lord Chamberlain. They needed such a powerful figure to befriend them because stage actors will not highly respected. Known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men, this group performed during its early days in the Rose Theater before moving in later years to the more famous Globe Theater. History remembers this group above all others because they had a young playwright and actor working with them who was known as William Shakespeare.

Richard Mallory, our story's main character, is a newly orphaned fourteen-year-old from a small town who is sent to London to find work to support himself. He also seeks to find his father who had abandoned him and his mother when he was very young. Richard isn't in London for very long before he is robbed and made aware that his life might be in danger. The best hope he has for supporting himself is by joining the Lord Chamberlain's men. He is going to hide from his unknown enemy by turning into a stage performer!

In this era, young boys played all the female roles in stage productions. Women were not allowed by law to perform on stage. Richard's voice had not changed yet, so he was able to take on female roles. The group found Richard to be of even more value than some apprentices, because his mother had insisted that he learn to read and to write when he was very young. He could copy by hand the parts for the various actors to learn as they rehearsed new plays. For these reasons, the Lord Chamberlain's Men were willing to be patient with Richard while he learned the acting trade.

Author J. B. Cheaney's book, "The Playmaker," brings Elizabethan London to life for us. It also involves us in the mystery surrounding Richard Mallory's efforts to find out who his secret enemies are and why they are out to kill him. You have to pay close attention as the plot moves through many twists and turns. With 300 plus pages, it is not a short novel, but it is worth the reading for the careful reader.

 

A book about a boy whose imaginary
life turns out to be real

Mike Pillsbury really thought he was an alien from outer space. Even though his parents laughed it off every time he asked them if he was really their kid, he believed he had been abandoned by aliens to be raised among earthlings. He wasn't a very good athlete, but he tried hard to play football with his middle school team. What he was good at was telling incredible stories about his past life as an alien. He related these experiences to a small group of kids who sat around up in Mike's tree house.

Mike's adventures really begin when, after an embarrassing incident, he posts a message on the Internet. The message was to citizens of the galaxy and stated that he, Mike Pillsbury, was being held against his will and needed help to escape the ignorance and cruelty that trapped him here on earth. To Mike's surprise, a Bom, a slimy alien form from outer space, shows up at his house. The Bom believes Mike's message and offers him a chance to leave the earth and return to his roots in outer space. And the Bom doesn't seem to want "no" as an answer!

The trouble is Mike is not sure he wants to go. He does like his parents and he doesn't want to leave his new girl friend, Katelyn. Things really get complicated when a spaceship load of varied types of aliens shows up to return Mike to his distant home in the galaxy. Luckily, it just happens to be around Halloween time, so people in his neighborhood don't realize that the aliens are anything other than kids in great Halloween costumes.

"Can of Worms" is a different kind of story. You are never really sure what is real and what is just Mike's overactive imagination. The author is having fun and clearly wants his readers to laugh their way through the book. At the end of the paperback, you find out that there are two more to follow that continue Mike's adventures. They're called "Eggs in One Basket" and "Out of the Horse's Mouth."