Children's Book Reviews
Page Two of TwoThe Wee, Free Men by Terry Pratchett
HarperCollins, April, 2003Hardcover, 272 pages
ISBN: 0060012366
Ages 12 and up
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
Tiffany Aching lives a rather boring life in the
land of Chalk. Although she's only nine years old,
Tiffany has loads of common sense, is a whiz at
making cheese, watching the family sheep and looking after her
extremely annoying younger brother. But when
monsters from the land of Fairyland start encroaching
on the Chalk and her brother disappears, Tiffany realizes
that it is up to her
to do something about it. She also realizes that
she is a witch in training. With the help of
an older witch to show her the ropes,
a talking toad, a frying pan, a book about sheep
ailments and remedies, and a band of Nac Mac Feegle, aka
the Wee Free Men, Tiffany sets out to retrieve her
brother who has now been kidnapped by the Queen
of the Elves.
The Wee Free Men is set in Pratchett's Discworld universe, which is a bit like ours turned upside down. But it's not necessary to have read any of his adult books to enjoy The Wee Free Men. Tiffany has amazing adventures, and battles the Elf Queen in a horrendous land where nightmares come true. She also grows up quite a bit along the way, and becomes the temporary leader of the Wee Free Men. The tiny, blue men are absolutely hilarious. They steal sheep, curse, and love both strong drink and mischief. But they are most helpful in a crisis, and know that's it's not a smart thing to cross a witch as powerful as Tiffany. The dialogue is smart and funny and the characterizations are complex. Pratchett is a brilliant satirist, and his veiled commentary on everything from the modern educational system to the modern child rearing techniques are as thought-provoking as they are funny. This is a marvelous tale that will be enjoyed equally by children or adults.
--Claire E. White
Zipped by Laura and Tom McNeal
Knopf, March, 2003Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN: 0375814914
Ages 12 and up
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
The theme of deception finds many variations
in the world of fifteen year-old Mick Nichols.
First, he finds an email on the family computer
that alerts him to the fact that his vivacious stepmother
is having an affair. He quickly copies the incriminating
emails between his stepmother and her
mysterious paramour and zips the disk into
his coat pocket. Mick is angry and hurt. He had
thought that he had a really good relationship
with his stepmother and now he has discovered
that she is not what she had seemed to be. What to do
with the disk becomes a problem that hovers
over Mick as he tries to find a solution to this
threatening problem. The disk zipped inside his
pocket now influences how he relates to people
and events.
Lisa Doyle, who is also fifteen, is a young girl struggling with first crushes combined with that other problem from the adult world: how to survive and come out ahead on that all important first real summer job.
Told from the alternate viewpoints of Mick and Lisa, the mysteries one encounters in an adult world unfold as the two young people try to evaluate and deal with the complicated world in which they live. The McNeals show a great deal of understanding of the differing viewpoints and problems of young adults as they try to deal with unpredictable feelings and "the face behind the face" in their closest companions. While the big mystery of just who Mick's stepmother is having an affair with and what he can do about it is the most intriguing theme of Zipped, the sinister Maurice is also fascinating. Maurice vacillates between cruelty to a Hispanic girl working at the retirement center and caring for the cats that an ill and former resident of the center has had to abandon; he is a puzzling and complex personality.
Zipped is not only a thrilling mystery, it is a wise and enlightening commentary on why people act the way they do. Rather than condemning the characters whose behavior is less than perfect, the story teaches the importance of motives that cause hard to understand actions. Like all good mystery stories, Zipped will keep the reader on edge until the last page.
--Sarah Reaves White
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