Rex Zero and the End of the World (Hardcover)

by Tim Wynne-Jones (Author) "I hear the bicycle before I see it..." (more)
Key Phrases: placard man, tree fort, laundry chute, Annie Oakley, Flora Bella, Dump Orbit (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8–It is 1962, and Rex Norton-Norton (aka Rex Zero) has been transplanted again, this time to Ottawa, along with his quirky family. With five siblings in his family, including boy-crazy Cassiopeia and Annie Oakley (who is convinced that the local nuns are Communist spies), there's plenty of activity, but no real friends for Rex and his trusty bicycle, Diablo. Lonely, he joins Kathy and her gang of kids who are convinced that an escaped panther, Tronido, is loose. Looming over the panther hunting is the backdrop of the Cold War, producing bomb shelters, rumors, and, for Rex, a few mysteries to solve. Fiction set in Canada during this period is relatively rare, making this an unusual and appealing title. Unfortunately, this book lacks an explanation of what is taking place, and its target audience won't be familiar with the historical underpinnings. Also, some of the references to TV shows and other 1960s culture will be equally baffling for kids. That said, the memorable characters and the animal mystery will keep the pages turning. Despite some confusion, readers will find something here to enjoy.–Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
"Rex Zero and I have a lot in common," Wynne-Jones says in an afterword to this first-person, present-tense narrative that depicts, in part, what it was like growing up in a big family that moved to Ottawa in the early 1960s. The shadow of the cold war is ever present. Some neighbors and government agencies build bomb shelters, and Rex's angry sister is obsessed with the nuclear threat ("Reds and Yanks have to be stopped"). But for Rex, the big problem is making new friends as he starts sixth grade in a new place. There's a bit too much period trivia about such things as TV and movie characters, but the sense of looming doomsday will hold readers, as will the timeless drama of moving and trying to fit in. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (February 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374334676
• ISBN-13: 978-0374334673
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #817,934 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( W ) > Wynne-Jones, Tim
  #39 in	Books > Children's Books > Educational > Explore the World > Fiction > Canada

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cue the R.E.M. song, November 15, 2007

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

You ever read an author, love their work, and then wake up at 2 a.m. with the sneaky suspicion that maybe all their books are good and that you've simply been missing out all these years? That's me, that is. I'm that. I've just read me a Tim Wynne-Jones book, thought it was top notch work, and then I started telling this to people. "Oh," they would say with sly little smiles plastered all over their faces. "And have you ever read anything by Tim before?" "Well, no," I'd confess. My compatriots would then nod sagely and the conversation would turn elsewhere, leaving me with the vague feeling that maybe I couldn't judge "Red Zero and the End of the World" unless I'd somehow read its author's entire children's literary oeuvre. Then I'd remember that a good reviewer reviews the book in front of them and not how that book stands up in the face of the writer's previous titles. So if you're already a Tim Wynne-Jones fan, I have good and bad news for you. The good is that I loved this book and I think it's great. The bad is that I don't know if it's any greater than anything else he's ever done. I guess you'll just have to pick yourself up a copy of this puppy and determine the rest for yourself.

In 1962 the end of the world is near. At least that's what the crazy guy with the sign walking around the streets of Ottawa would have you believe. For Rex Norton-Norton (Rex Zero, for short), the world might well be ending for all he knows. He's just moved to Ottawa from Vancouver (and, before that, from Britain) and since it's the summer you would think that there would be some kids about to play with. There are kids, sure, but whenever Rex sees them they're usually moving as fast as they can away from him. It's very mysterious. Soon the boy befriends some of the locals and the truth comes out. The kids of the town are terrified because there's a gigantic panther on the loose. It's been sighted, but no adult is willing to believe this improbable possibility, which means that it's up to the kids to capture the beast and save themselves. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War in a time of uncertainty and paranoia, author Tim Wynne-Jones constructs an elegant metaphor for a time when people fight against a misunderstood threat with potentially disasterous results.

We, as Americans, don't read a lot of children's books where the hero is a Brit who has moved to Canada. They're all English speaking countries, but somehow such books are almost exotic to us. Even in the depths of their suburbia, they're exotic. This, to my mind, is what sets Mr. Wynne-Jones apart as an author. He fills his book with distinctive details that round out the text and, at the same time, keep the story amusing to child readers. For example, I liked it when Rex sat watching television with his parents, slowly coming to the realization that they were so wrapped up in the program about the Cold War that they've forgotten he's even there. Rex eventually feels so freaked out by the programs that he's obliged to yell, "What am I doing here? . . . Somebody, please make me go to bed!" It's bits like these that give the story the feeling that everything here is, somehow, "real".

You won't find a shortage of quality children's fiction pertaining to the 1960s in the world today. Paranoia makes for strong literature, particularly in these paranoia-laden times in which we live. Of course paranoia, which is to say kid-friendly paranoia, can take on a variety of different forms. In this particular book, it trickles down to the kids in the neighborhood, causing them to see monsters in the very streets around them. In books like The Loud Silence of Francine Green by Karen Cushman, though, the metaphor is a bit more open and blunt, rendering the book a mature and entirely different beastie. What distinguishes "Rex Zero" then is how child-friendly the entire book is. You like Rex. You like his kooky family. You like them in spite of the fact that writing original kooky families is almost impossible in this day and age. Child and adult readers are almost entirely kookied out. It takes a great deal of restraint and training to write one with as strong an undercurrent of truth as is found in "Rex Zero". I credit the fact that Mr. Wynne-Jones has based much of the story here on his own family and you can feel that love emanating from his writing. When Rex and his younger sister share a joke that only the two of them find funny and end up rolling under the kitchen table with laughter, that scene alone struck me as almost too true to write.

I've heard some people complain that this book is too blatant with its incomprehensible 1962 references and props. For example, Rex lives in a home that he has named the House of Punch, due to the overabundance of old Punch magazines currently littering the basement below. Or there are his multiple references to "real Wonder bread" which is more than mildly baffling to any reader, young or old. All that aside, I didn't feel that any of this hurt the potential audience of this title. Fleeting confusion is hardly the be all and end all of any title, let alone one as fun and enthralling as this.

"Rex Zero and the End of the World" may be a period piece, but its premise is as timely as ever today. With a great cast of characters, top notch writing, and a story that keeps you guessing, this is one of the unsung gems of the 2007 year. Well worth a gander, should you get a chance to note it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars funny and moving, April 18, 2007

By	Helen Frost (Fort Wayne, Indiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love to be carried into a story on a magic carpet of laughter, and that's what Tim Wynne-Jones does for us here. Rex Zero wins my heart immediately by assigning random numbers to his paint-by-number paint pots and then watching with interest to see how the pictures turn out. So believable and original. The Cold War history that permeates the book is of special interest because the point of view is Canadian--as an American reader, I kept being startled to see how that made the terrain just a little unfamiliar, even when it seemed, at first, to be something I knew. Don't miss this book--you'll love the family, from brave big sister, Annie Oakley, to Flora Bella and the Sausage--but most especially, the smart, heroic Rex Zero himself.

5.0 out of 5 stars Rex Zero and the End of the World, January 24, 2009

By	W. Howell (Whidbey Island, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wynne-Jones wonderfully captures the mind and speech of middle graders. He also does a great job in this book bringing to life a historical time - the cold war sixties. With humor, he portrays how silly many adults reacted to the threat of nuclear war and how their reactions effected their children.
Wynne-Jones makes his story relevant with the strong thread of making friends in new places.