Skip to main content

The Danger Box

By

by Blue Balliett
Scholastic, 2010. 304 pgs. Fiction.


Zoomy lives with his grandmother and grandfather in Three Oaks, Michigan, because his father is jail bait who doesn't know he exists and his mother left him on their doorstep when he was a baby. Zoomy has Pathological Myopia and is legally blind. He likes to make lists in notebooks, using a purple pen. Suddenly his life is complicated by the appearance of his father, driving a stolen red pickup truck with an odd-looking box on the seat. "Dad" stashes the box in the garage and drives off, but not before being a jerk to the son he didn't know he had. In this way, Zoomy and his new friend Lorrol are drawn into a mystery--is the old notebook Zoomy finds in the box meaningless or a priceless artifact? Will Zoomy's icky father take him away from his beloved Gam and Gumps? And what does his and Lorrol's increasing interest in Charles Darwin have to do with it all? Blue Balliett's sparkling new puzzle/mystery is a rich layering of science, humanity, suspense, and family feeling. Demonized by many, Charles Darwin emerges here as a man of extraordinary curiosity, intellect, sensitivity and soul, and as Grandma Chamberlain wisely observes: " . . . why can't a person believe in both evolution and God? It's salt and pepper." A beautifully well-written story that should appeal to a wide range of children (and their parents).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer

By DeeDee
Stand Tall By Siena Siegel by Joan Bauer Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker

By
  Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker By Heidi Heilig New York: Greenwillow Books, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Thanks to Cincinnati Lee's no good, dirty rotten, artifact stealing great great great grandfather, Cincinnati's family is now cursed and Cincinnati feels like it's up to her to break the curse. Which involves trying to steal the artifacts back from museums that her grandfather robbed from graves and archeological sites around the world and return them to their countries of origin. But when Cincinnati's first artifact stealing mission goes awry, she decides it might be more effective to steal an all-powerful artifact herself that she can use to break the curse - The Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately her race for the spear will pit her against art smugglers and thieves intent on finding the ancient artifact themselves. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones read-alike, this is the perfect for you! Heavy on the adventure with similar levels of mysticism to those seen in th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The New Girl

By
The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...
Post a Comment
Read more