Customer Reviews

Slake's Limbo

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I use this book with my eighth grade students, some of whom will be doing their own review. There is a little of Aremis Slake in most young teenagers- feelings of uncertainty, mistrust, fear. This novel provides an interesting look at what its like to try to survive in an urban setting, a situation totally unfamiliar to most of my students. They did, however, seem to enjoy his trials and tribulations of spending 121 days in the subway. Many students asked about, and I think would enjoy, a sequel.

I read the book Slake's Limbo as an assignment for my Children's Literature class at Northern Michigan University, which is located in Marquette, Michigan. At first, I was not sure what to think of the book. I read the opening description at the front of the text, and I thought that it was going to be some type of fantasy book about a boy that lives in his own little world and goes into a cave or a hole in the ground. Little did I know, this was a book about a young man that had some severe "real life" problems. This boy was horribly abused by some of his peers. He was teased and harassed so much that he had to run away from the boys to the underground subway systems of New York City. Here, Aremis Slake lived for 121 days. He overcame his troubles, though, and found a way to survive for all this time by finding a way to make money and get food. He got his money from selling papers, and took the extra papers to his "home" and used them for his bed. This is truly an inspirational book about a young man that battles fear, hunger, and the dangers of the New York subways to survive. This book is, indeed, a book of survival and is inspirational to those of us that want to give up every now and then. This book also gives adults a realization that we need to listen to children about their problems, and do what we can to help kids that may be experiencing difficulties like this. Many people can learn a great deal from a book like this.

"Slake's Limbo," by Felice Holman, was one of the "young adult" books that made the biggest impression on me when I fell into that age group. Re-reading it recently, I realized that the book has lost none of its impact. Holman tells the story of Aremis Slake, an undersized, persecuted 13-year old New York City boy. Overwhelmed by the stress of his life, Slake flees to the underground world of the subway system -- "a city under the city" where he finds a "home" and a new life. But a 13-year old can't live underground indefinitely; Slake is headed for a moment of truth.

This is a haunting, powerful story. Slake is a remarkable character. In many ways he's like a mythic hero; he literally journeys into the "underworld" and re-creates himself. Holman fills the book with fascinating details about the boy's survival strategies.

"Slake's Limbo" is rich in symbolic details, but the story can also be enjoyed at face value. This book is, in my opinion, one of the very best of young adult novels.

A heartwrenching story about a boy who lives in the subway for 121 days, Slake's Limbo by Felice Holman is a winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, an ALA Notable Book, and a YASD Best Book for Young Adults.
Slake lives with his abusive aunt. Furthermore, his classmates are abusive, beating him up frequently. Eventually, he runs away into the subways of New York, where he finds a small cave in which to live. In order to survive, he devises some interesting ways to make money. The book also tells us a little of the story of Willis Joe Whinny, who wants to be a sheep-herder in Australia. Felice Holman stretches the moment, making the book very suspenseful. "What would the man do? ...(the moment is stretched for 10 paragraphs)... 'You're charging for service. That's fair enough.'"
This relatively easy to read book would appeal to 9 - 12 year olds since, in many ways, the reader will be able to relate to Slake. It would be beneficial for preteens to get the message: Hope is never lost.

Slakes Limbo is a book about a thirteen year old boy who lives by himself on the street. The kids he goes to school with are bigger than him and beat him up if they can catch him. One day while he was being chased he ran into the underground subway. He decides to stay down there and live for 121 days. While he is down in the subway, he finds a cave in the wall by one of the tracks. He makes that his home to sleep in every night. One day he saw people leaving their newspapers at the lunch court tables. He picked them up and smootheed them out. While he was holding the papers a man called to him to buy one. Slake was surprised but sold the man a paper. Then a couple more people bought papers too.Soon he had two regular costumers. With the money he made from newspapers he bought himself food at the court. with the extra papers he had he brought them into his cave and crumpled them up to make a bed. Every day he collected newspapers, sold them, and bought lunch. One day the lunch court manager asked him if he wanted to have a job sweeping the floor after all of the costumers left. In return he would get a full meal every day. With getting free meals he began to save up some money and bought himself a shirt and a couple pairs of socks. While Slake is down in the subway he has the happiest time of his life.
Slakes Limbo was a good book about survival and it was interesting on how he made money. He also made a good use of some unusual things that he collected in the subway.I would reccommend this book to anyone who likes a survival story.

"Slake's Limbo" is one of those books that has lived far longer than anyone could have rightfully expected. Written originally in 1974, the book chronicles New York at what could arguably be called its grittiest. In a world of tokens, perpetual graffiti, and decomposing subway stations, the book has become a kind of time capsule for the 70s. This would be reason alone for forgetting about it. But then there's the writing to contend with. Author Felice Holman never really wrote anything that got as much acclaim as "Slake". Her specialty, it would seem, came in writing books about confused and lonely boys. The prose in "Slake's Limbo" are probably why it's still remarked on today. Whether kids will like it or not is entirely up to them.

Aremis Slake (the predecessor to Artemis Fowl, perhaps?) lives a life of avoidance. He avoids the crushing hoards of bullies that make his life a misery. He avoids the nightmarish aunt that makes him sleep in the kitchen and tells him constantly that he's "weak". All this avoidance begins to escalate after a while and soon Slake finds a way of hiding from the world on a permanent basis. He goes to live in the subway system. This may sound like a crazy plan, but Aremis has it all figured out. He discovers a forgotten little concrete room accidentally formed when a fancy hotel messed up its construction. He finds that if he locates abandoned newspapers on the subways, he can sell them full price to commuters. He even manages to get a job cleaning an underground diner for food as pay. Paralleling Slake's tale is the story of Willis Joe, a train conductor who has begun to regard his passengers as sheep. By the end of the tale, the lives of these two subway dwellers intersect, and Slake gets a new chance at a different kind of life.

Holman has a certain flair to her writing that is hard to compete with. In talking about gangs of roaming teens she writes that they were often, "high on wine or potent potions". The original workmen who accidentally were responsible for Slake's cave made the mistake while, "recovering as they were from a cooling liquid lunch". The book does make the fairly fatal mistake of never cracking a smile. Some children assigned "Slake's Limbo" in school probably will call it depressing simply because it never offers them a sly wink or even so much as a chuckle. Though Holman is adept at weaving a fable of survival akin to Gary Paulsen's, "Hatchet" or Scott O'Dell's, "Island of the Blue Dolphins", it's not going to win any awards for levity any time soon. We're dealing with a book in which the author never even refers to her hero by his first name. Talk about harsh.

This was the most recent book my homeschooler bookgroup of 8 to 11-year-olds discussed. I had expected to find the crew entirely jaded and unimpressed with the title. Instead, I was amazed to discover that they loved the book. Adored it, in fact. One girl read the entire thing, all twelve chapters (as she was quick to inform me) in a single day. Though one of my homeschooler parents forbade her child to read it (she had not, suffice it to say, read the book herself) I was delighted to find that not a single kid or parent had any problems with the tale. Consider this one of those rare books that children really do enjoy when they get into it.

Obvious pairing with this book include Neal Schusterman's, "Downsiders". Of course, "Downsiders" is an out-and-out fantasy about living underground. "Slake's Limbo", by contrast, reeks of reality. A far better pairing, actually, would be to read this book and then take a gander at Mark Singer's extraordinary documentary, "Dark Days". Both this title and that film look at the real life world of those people who chose to live in the darkest corners of New York City. Sustaining that kind of life is as fascinating as it is vaguely horrific. If you're more into tales of survival, the aforementioned "Hatchet" and "Island of the Blue Dolphins" or maybe "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George as well as the more recent "Dark Ground" by Gillian Cross will be just the thing for you.

In school, we read as a group, Slake's Limbo (by Felice Holman), a great book, but I did not realize it until the end. Slake's Limbo is about a boy stuck between living in the subway and his real home where he really belongs.

Then main character, Aremis Slake lives in New York City. Slake is a 13-year-old boy, who became an orphan at 13 years old. Bullies picked on Slake because of the fact that Slake was small, even when they did not have a reason. Slake just wanted there to be a year, when the leaves stayed on the trees. While Slake was walking through a neighborhood he never saw before, he walked into Central Park. Then Slake grabbed a bunch of long dried grass and started tying leaves to the maple tree. Then a park attendant shouted at Slake. Slake was so scared that he ran into the subway at Columbus Circle.

Aremis Slake, instead of staying in the subway until things cooled down, he stayed for 121 days. During those 121 days Slake met new faces, rats, waitresses, and people who cared for him. Slake always thought of the negative; he never thought that something good could happen in his life. He never really cared about anyone; he never thought anyone cared about him; a few of the 121 days while in the subway, the waitress started to give Slake larger amounts of food for the same amount of money everyday that he ordered food.

When Slake found a "home", a hole in the wall, he daily started collecting useful objects: glass things, paper things, metal things, art things, clothes, and everything else to decorate a home that suits his personality. If Slake did not live in the hole in the wall he would have to sleep/rest on the subway trains all day long.

The thoughts and opinions I had were focused on what I agreed with, disagreed with, and how things could have been changed. I agreed with a lot. Even though I couldn't really understand what Felice Holman meant sometimes, I knew she was trying to explain Slake's tough life. I liked Slake, he was a good character and he was an interesting character, and he met new faces while he lived in the subway. Slake did not talk to anyone hardly - he really only talked when he ordered his meal of the day. I first thought he was shy, but I realized he was just scared. I enjoyed the setting because it was different then any other setting in a book. I think the book went a little fast, the book ended too soon. And I thought the book wasn't that great until the end of the book, which was because the book was not exciting or interesting to me until the end because the book did not make sense until the two stories tied together. I hope you find it a great book before I did.

Slake's Limbo relates to Phoenix Rising (by Karen Hesse). It is the book Nyle read to Ezra. Ezra was one of the two evacuees living with Nyle and her grandmother. Nyle is a farm girl that lives with her grandmother in Vermont. If you read Phoenix Rising then Slake's limbo is a good book to read. Ezra was afraid of going outside, almost the same as Slake, but Slake was afraid to go above ground. Slake changed and did not always think about the negative. Ezra overcame his fear, he went outside, and he tried to do things like everyday people. If you think about it, Slake's Limbo could be called Phoenix Rising because Slake changed like Ezra. Both of them overcame their fears.

I would definitely recommend Slake's Limbo to pretty much anyone who read Phoenix Rising and enjoyed it. I also recommend this book to people planning on reading Phoenix Rising, or people looking for an interesting book, a book that talks about people approaching their fear.

Slake's Limbo by Felice Holman is one of the best books I've read. I think it teaches you to never let fear hold you back. It takes place in New York City. It's about a 13-year-old boy named Aremis Slake and a motorman named Willis Joe Whinny.

Slake got chased for almost his entire life. One day when he was being chased for no reason by bullies, he went down in the subway and got on a train. But instead of getting off at a transfer point, he got off at a place he'd never been and went to Central Park.

One of Slake's dreams was that "The leaves will stay on the trees this year," so Slake took pieces of grass and started to tie leaves back on the trees. But soon a man saw him and called the cops and Slake ran down in the Subway without a token and got on a train again.

Soon Slake got off at Grand Central Station and got chased again, so he went back down in the Subway without a token again. But instead of going on the train, he jumped on the tracks and found a hole in the wall and lived there for one hundred twenty-one days.

Willis Joe was a man who dreamed of being a sheepherder in Australia. It all started when he and his friends went to see a movie about it. But one day Willis Joe's father broke his hip and Willis Joe had to do all of the heavy work. Soon he got a job at a car garage. Later his father told him to be a motorman so he'd get paid more. He figured that he would need to save up for his trip to Australia. Years later, he started to see people in the Subway as sheep because he thought that their souls were blurred.

When Slake was down in the subway, he accidentally got a job selling newspapers and sweeping up a diner. He started to sell papers when he took some off a train and a man saw him with them. The man paid 15 cents for it. He got the job in the diner when the manager saw him there every day. I think that living in the subway changed Slake's life by teaching him to face his fears and not let it hold him back.

But one day when Slake was riding a train on the lower tracks, a train on the upper tracks was hit by fallen cement close to Slake's cave. When he went to the diner to work, the waitress said they were going to close up all of the holes in the wall, including Slake's! Slake went for about two and-a-half days without food or water because of fear of loss of his home and depression. On his third day, he heard hammering. The workers were coming! Or so he thought. Before Slake went out on the tracks, he took a piece of cardboard, spray painted a four letter word on it, and went out.

The hammering sound was really Willis Joe fixing a door on the train. When Willis Joe started the train, he saw Slake with a sign. It said: STOP. So Willis Joe stopped the train and brought Slake to the hospital.

When Slake woke up, he was in an air tent. A few weeks later, he left the hospital before he was supposed to and headed to the subway. But he remembered that his cave was gone and stopped. He didn't know were he was going, but the general direction was up.

The part I liked most was when Willis Joe saved Slake's life because that's the nicest thing you could do for anyone. I felt sorry for Slake when his best-and -only friend Joseph got hit by a truck, because after Slake had nobody. I liked how Felice Holman wrote two stories that had nothing to do with each other in the beginning, but linked together in the end. I noticed that above ground after Joseph died, no one cared for Slake, not even his aunt, but in the subway, he was cared for by some people. I would think that family would care for you more than complete strangers. On a scale of one to ten, I rate this book a ten. I hope you go ahead and try the book.

The book "Slakes Limbo" was an extremely good book. This book talks about a small, nearsighted, bruised orphan at the age of thirteen called Aremis Slake who lives his life in a New York subway after the life he had on the surface went wrong. In this book he is known as a pathetic person who was picked on by practically anyone he came into contact with. I thought this book had a lot of drama and adventure. I would recommend this book to everyone, especially to kids over the age of 11.

This is a book people would enjoy. I liked the part on pages 14-15 when he was lucky to find a hole in the subway wall that was used to put supplies in when they were still constructing the subway, and also how he started to use newspapers as a pillow and also other things. Just think being him having to live in a hole in the wall of a subway having to sell things for little money just to get some food. I bet no one thinks that is fun especially him because he has to. I was happy that he was anyway at least able to find that hole so that he could sleep in it; yes it wasn't comfortable but its better then having to sleep on the floor of the tracks. I liked this book and hope the next person who reads it for the first time enjoys it too.

I would recommend Slakes Limbo to friends and family because of Slake's determination and perseverance to avoid obstacles and troubles. He is a survivor. He is consistently brave throughout hard times, making the best out of his life. Slakes Limbo is an easy read and would be great for 6th graders or adolescents that have been bullied.
After evaluating many plot events, I have decided that don't stop trying would represent the story's theme. This decision was based on Slakes reactions and emotions to certain events in the book. Slake collected used newspapers to sell to buy food and water. He also used the newspapers as a pillow or cushion. Another time, he found lanterns to light his house. Slake also found glasses that he later replaced with lenses to improve his vision. He used the glasses to help him to find other scraps to use, in his so called home, to better his living. Slake continued to persevere and survive, avoiding gangs and other potential troubles that would have made his live miserable.
Slake endures hard times and seems to manage with the few resources that he collects. For example, he is creative in using the lanterns and newspapers within his home. He learns to survive on a day to day basis on his own with what little hehas. He is a survivor and never stops trying, and never gives up.
This book has many powerful lessons, all beneficial for middle school students. Slakes Limbo will work students mind as it raises many thought provoking questions and situations.