From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-Kevin, 12, and his older sister, an aspiring opera singer, wind up living by the Venice boardwalk after escaping a stalker in New Mexico. On their own after their mother's death, they change their names and hair color and try to fit in among the eccentric characters they meet. The cast includes a juggling medical student and a countess who produces operas. While Holly rehearses for a performance, Kevin tries to earn money by telling fortunes and tries to figure out ways to avoid the stalker, who has found them in California. Kevin's conversational narration moves the story along at a lively pace, and his energy and enthusiasm make him a likable character. Though he's sad about his mother and anxious about the stalker, he has plenty of fun in his new home. He makes several friends, including a helpful policewoman and the local bully, and has varied success in his attempts to make money as a "hat man," a fortune-teller, and a human mannequin. The characters and the setting are the main draws here, though when the stalker finally makes his move, the suspense increases. When it looks like readers are headed for predictable discoveries of lost treasures and escaped-from-peril mothers, Fleischman neatly frames the conclusion into something more thoughtful and meaningful, and Kevin and Holly head off toward a bright future.
Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, ORCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 4-6. Fleischman
pere blends themes both comic and serious into this tale of orphans on the run. Shortly after their archeologist mother is lost in a cave-in, Kevin Kidd and his older sister, Holly, find their house burglarized and realize that they are being stalked by a mysterious man in a white suit. In an effort to escape both the stalker and their grief, they depart for California, fetching up among the street performers on Venice Beach. With operatic ambitions and a voice to match, Holly sings for their supper, while Kevin shills for a watermelon juggler working his way through med school, and tells fortunes with a borrowed crystal ball. Holly's dream comes true when she's offered the lead in a local production, but the stalker shows up on opening night, waving a gun and insisting that the sibs' mom had found a map to a fabled city of gold. The author draws his twisty, nail-biter to an untidy, but satisfying, resolution: there's no mom and no map, but the Kidds' future still manages to take on a rosier glow. It's vintage Fleischman.
John PetersCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
