The
Burning Pendulum
Fortune
Tellers Club
By
Dotti Enderle
The
Burning Pendulum looks at a serious issue in literature for
young people -- banning books. Since I'm pretty strong-willed about
the need not to ban books, I was looking forward to this one. As
a story for kids, it works. The villain is unquestionably villainous.
Juniper is an endearing reluctant hero. And the kid dialogue is
terrific. Plus, it has the kind of happy ending we like in a book.
As a book that looks at the issues surrounding book banning, it's
probably a little more cartoon evil vs. good than happens in real
life. Although the villain is certainly easy to hate, the resolution
to the story depends more on the villain's stupidity than on the
wrongness of book banning. In the end, we have no idea why the villain
ever got involved since she neither has any real problem with using
the occult nor does she care about human children (including her
own). But, if you read it simply as a story -- it's fun, it's fast-paced,
and it even offers a new use for those weird little glass marbles
you see in craft stores.
|
The
Book |
Llewellyn Worldwide |
January
2005 |
Paperback |
0738705942 |
Ages
9 - 12 |
More
at Amazon.com |
Excerpt
|
NOTE:
|
The
Reviewer |
Jan Fields |
Reviewed
2005 |
NOTE:
|
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