Customer Reviews

Cliff-Hanger (Mysteries in Our National Parks)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cliff-hanger (an odd title when I think about the story) is the third in a series of books in the National Geographic Society's "National Parks Mystery" series. This is the first one I've read.

In the story, twelve year old Jack is mysteriously attracted to a mysterious foster teen mysteriously named "Lucky Deal" doing mysterious things that the family mysteriously accepts from a shelter just a day before Jack's mom goes on assignment in Mesa Verde National Park to investigate mysterious cougar attacks on people.

I guess this is why the book is considered a "mystery."

Jack, a precocious 12, is attracted to Lucky like a moth to a flame. He won't rat on her. He protects her. He wants to be with her. She's mysterious! And she is 13.

Jack's sister, Ashley, another precocious 9 (or 11? I forget) year old, isn't attracted to Lucky. In fact, she is down right suspicious.

Lucky is full of mystery.

But this is also the story of Mesa Verde and that cougar. Apparently, the cougar the Park killed was not the one attacking people. In the spirit of National Geographic, what do we learn about cougars?

"'...when I examine its scat, I found it full of deer hair. That means the cougar had been feeding just a short while before it supposedly attacked. With a full stomach [what was in the stomach?], it would have had no reason to go searching for another mean. So why would it have gone after a small child?'" (p. 56). How about, in the delay between an attack and its eventual death, it caught and ate a deer?

"'Every animal has the right to be here,' he began. 'We're trying to find the problem cat and get that particular animal out of the park. The rest of the cougars are necessary for keeping the ecological balance, meaning that if you take one link out of the natural chain, the entire chain becomes weak'" (p. 64). This is very simplistic, even for this book.

"' Things...happen. It's risky to be in wild places. Visitors accept that because the trade-off is so great - the beauty, the chance to see nature untamed, including the wild animals'" (p. 91). Actually, people expect trails and visitor areas in parks to be very safe. Lawsuits filed against governments when attacks occur indicate this, and juries tend to agree (look up the Orange County, California, lion attacks).

"'Finally, it makes sense,' she said. 'You've solved it, Ashley - that collar means the cougar wasn't wild. Someone had raised it as a pet - found it when it was a cute little cub and kept it penned up. Then it grew big and got too hard to handle, so the owner let it loose. Probably brought it here to the park and set it free'" (p. 138). No, truly wild bears and lions can also kill people.

At the end of the book, there is a brief essay written by Mesa Verde National Park's Chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services. He writes, "Our natural fear of the cougar is not without cause. Cougars attacking people, as in this book, are events that are rare, but they do occur" (p. 150). Correct!

If you like the genre of mysteries written in the context and location of national parks and monuments, look up Nevada Barr's novels, featuring law enforcement ranger Anna Pigeon. I encourage you to read them in sequence.

Cliff -Hanger
I thought that the book was the best book i every read. IT kept making me think what was going t happen next. It kept making you want to read more and more.

The story is about a boy named Jack , his sister Ashley ,and their parents Olivia and Steven. Their mom is a veterinarian and she goes to parks and help solve strange things that happen with the animals. Their dad is a professional photographer and he goes on trips with Olivia to take pictures. Their mom and dad are emergency care foster parents, so sometimes they take the foster kid on the trip with them. In this story they go to Mesa Verde National Park to solve the mystery of the cougar attacks. The day before they left they had to bring a foster kid named Lucky deal but Jack wants to trust her but he doesn't know if he can.


I would recommend this book to someone around my age 10-12 or a person who likes mystery books. This book is also in a series of 7 other books

This book was great! My favorite part was when the cougar came into the story. I read the book in one day because it was so good and I just couldn't stop reading! It was interesting to learn about the Hopi people and the way they lived. In this book I learned a lot about cougars and people who lived long ago. The book was exciting and full of suspence.

While this series of National Parks Mysteries is well-researched and reasonably well-written, all the books I have read seek to show foster children as delinquents or worse.

Always the foster children are keeping secrets from the family. In this book, the foster child steals the mother's credit card information and charges phone calls to her. The foster child also steals a relic from the National Park, and lies about it. And the foster child is a scam artist who fakes injuries and then threatens to sue eating establishments, etc.

Bleah. Enough is enough.

This book compounds the foster child aggravation with a story line that wants us to be very sympathetic to predators, who never ever ever ever attack people because they are so gentle, shy, and harmless. (more info: David Baron's book, "The Beast in the Garden"). This book is skippable.

Cliffhanger by Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson is a great book for kids. Cliffhanger is about Jack Landon and his little sister Ashley. Their mom (Mrs.Ferguson) is a veterinarian who is called out to Mesa Verde because of a mountain lion attack on a hiker, when a foster girl named Lucky comes to them. Jack is mad at Lucky for intruding on there family vacation to Mesa Verde when he becomes friends with Lucky. The family gets to Mesa Verde but then Lucky starts to make a lot of mysterious phone calls. Everyone is trying to convince themselves that Lucky is not who she says she is and that she is a liar. That night lucky escapes the family to go with her dad. Cliffhanger has lots of adventure and real places. It is a great book for anybody who loves books with a lot of adventure in it.

SW

Cliffhanger , by Gloria Skurzynshi , is a detailed and adventurous book. This is the story of a family who cares and appreciates wild animals. Jack, Ashley, and Lucky's mom is a vet who is responsible for taking care of animals. Their dad takes pictures of the wildlife to publish in magazines. The story takes place in Mesa Verda National Park in Colorado. At the beginning of the story they adopt a child. Her name is Lucky. Lucky and Jack develop a bond between each other while Ashley wonders about a wild animal that has been snooping around and an artifact that's been stolen. This book was an enjoyable read and I look forward to searching out other titles by this author. To find out how this story ends pick up a copy and read it.

The name of the book I just read is Cliff-Hanger. It was exciting and mysterious. On a scale of one to ten I would give it a ten. In the book, the Landons get a strange new foster child named Lucky Deal,and the social worker,Mrs.Lopez, can't find out anything about her because Lucky won't tell them. Plus, Jack and Ashley Landon's mom,a wildlife veterinarian, is headed to Mesa Verde National Park to investigate why a crazy cougar who is attacking innocent people. If this sounds exciting you should read the book.

This book is very easy to picture. It has good details and is easy to understand. I liked how the author made one of the main characters very unpredictable. That's what made this book more suspenseful.


This book is about a boy named Jack and his sister Ashley. One day their mother, who is a veterinarian, gets called down to a national park. A wild cougar has been harming people. But there is one problem; Lucky has to come with them. Lucky is a foster kid. The social worker doesn't know her real name and any background information. She also told the parents that they should watch Lucky, she's been acting very strange. Since Jack overheard his parent's conversation, he decided to watch Lucky.
One night he wakes up hearing a very odd sound. There in the hallway is Lucky on the phone. When she gets off the phone, she turns to Jack in surprise. First she is mad, but then decided to tell Jack why she was on the phone at two in the morning. She says that she was on the phone with her friend who was in the hospital. Her and her friend saw a gang committing a crime. Luckily Lucky got away, but her friend didn't. When the gang caught them, her friend got beat up. So now Lucky is in foster care hoping that the gang won't find her. Jack wonders if she was telling the truth. Will the gang ever find her? Or is it all a lie?

I'd recommend this book to anyone, since main characters are both a boy and a girl. Also, if anyone likes suspense and mischief, they'll enjoy this book. Also if anyone likes easy to picture in their mind books, this is a good book for you.

Cliffhanger is an exciting read for teen readers. Skurzynski incorporates several themes to interest male and female readers. She addresses ethical issues that leads to discussion on responsibility and honesty. My group was interested in the historical facts covered creatively by a character in the story. The last chapter left me wanting a little more as a mature reader, but closed things well enough for most younger readers.