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Publisher:
Deer Creek Publishing |
Release
Date: June 1, 2001 |
ISBN:
0-9651452-8-X |
Awards:
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Format
Reviewed: Paperback |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Learn
More |
Genre:
Children’s – Fiction – Environmentalism
-- 9-12 / teen |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Kristin Johnson |
Reviewer
Notes: Reviewer, Kristin Johnson just released her second
book, CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING, co-written with Mimi
Cummins, in October 2003. Her third book, ORDINARY MIRACLES:
My Incredible Spiritual, Artistic and Scientific Journey, co-written
with Sir Rupert A.L. Perrin, M.D., is now available from PublishAmerica.
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Copyright
MyShelf.com |
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What
the Orangutan Told Alice
By Dale Smith
Alice Smith seems to have forgotten
WHAT THE PARROT TOLD ALICE. With typical teenage self-absorption,
the heroine of Dale Smith’s first book would rather be sunning
in Las Vegas instead of hanging out with centipedes in Borneo while
her father writes a novel about endangered orangutans. However,
Alice lives up to her name’s echoes of the rabbit hole when
she defends a helpless orangutan named Siti from village boys. Alice
then travels through space and time into the rainforest, where she
meets fellow traveler Shane, an exchange student from California
who is also not enthusiastic about being stuck in Borneo but rescues
the chained-up Yayat and gets takes on a ride the wisecracking shutterbug
teen doesn’t expect. When Alice meets Shane, destiny is in
the air. No, this isn’t “Love in the Jungle.”
While Shane and Alice develop a Tracy-Hepburn kind of banter and
there is an inevitable hint of romance, the two share a far more
meaningful bond as they meet primate psychologist Ibu Anne (perhaps
the same Anne E. Russon who executes the brilliant photographs in
the book), conservationist Willie Smits who plays “Animal
Cops” for orangutans, and of course, the orangutans themselves.
Once again, as in the first book,
there’s plenty of nature, fascinating mind-popping science
(including a discussion of the theory of evolution that will knock
both Darwinists and Creationists on their ears), finger-pointing
at humankind’s shortsightedness (as well as a deserved jab
at Americans’ refusal to embrace other cultures), suggestions
that humans would do well to emulate animals, and wondrous encounters
with the rainforest. There are plenty of animal characters such
as the wise Lorax-like Marco, the Old Man of the Forest, love-monkey
Nik, and survivor Jude, whose owner taught her to drink martinis
and smoke Marlboros (no joke). There’s an international (even
extraterrestrial!) perspective, intelligent environmental and scientific
discourse, as well as the sense that people are finally lighting
candles rather than cursing the darkness.
Teens are fond of the phrase “Get
real.” In Smith’s story, both teens and adults tell
the world to get real and listen to WHAT THE ORANGUTAN TOLD ALICE.
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