14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lions and Tigers and ......BANG!!!.........Oh My, June 3, 2003
Ben is left in charge of a big cat refuge/preserve in California while his parents are off on safari in Africa. Ben is a teen with usual teen anxieties and now he has to run a preserve that the neighbors resent, supervise a crew of illegal aliens, and handle a few dozen big cats; full grown lions, tigers, panthers and a house cheetah. Since that's not enough stress for a teenager the author throws in a sniper, an unknown killer who is picking off the animals at night.
I read this book to be able to quiz my eleven year old as he read it and to be honest the book is pretty good. The characters are likeable and not saccharine, the boy...Ben...has realistic conflicts, and the animals seem to be realistically depicted. My eleven year old enjoyed the book, my thirteen year old read a few chapters and said he liked it.
My only critism is that the resolution comes out of the blue. The development of the identity of the culprit seems to happen abruptly in the last few chapters. There are no clues early on that foreshadow the ending. Real life may be that way but it does not make for a satisfactory ending in a novel.
That aside I would recommend it for young readers, challenging for an eleven year old, easy for a thirteen year old.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sniper, April 11, 2000
By A Customer
Sniper is a mystery about a teenage kid who grows up with different kinds of large cats. Hardly anyone in Californis(where they moved) liked the idea of Ben Jepson, his family, and the different cats moving in their town. Ben's parents have left the "cat farm" to go to Africa. Ben is there all alone except for two people(and their family)who live there. Now a sniper has come in, and this isn't good news for Ben. I think that Sniper by Theodore Taylor was one of the best books I have ever read. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great mystery.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sniper, March 30, 2005
A Kid's Review
"As if jabbed with a long needle Benjamin Jepson is jerked awake to screams of peacocks." Benjamin Jepson is left in charge of his families "California Wild Life Preserve" in the book Sniper by Theodore Taylor.
Ben's father's preserve is attacked by an unknown sniper. Knowing that most of the neighbors the preserve do not like the animals, Ben decides that there are a lot of suspects. Some reasons would be that in some times the animals escaped or properly couldn't be sold.
Benjamin Jepson, a 13 year old boy, is considered mediocre by his grandmother, he is stubborn but determined. This is shown in the book when Ben goes after the sniper that has killed cats in the preserve. Benjamin is also a leader, when a fire was burning the preserve. Ben had managed to move the big cats to another location without injuring them.
This book has many strong points. For example, he used fragments a lot and this puts a strong impact on his ideas. The weakest point to this book was the ending. The author, Theodore Taylor, should have had ended the book once the sniper was caught. On the other, the author who used foreshadowing. For example in the story it said that there was a crack in the other room. Moments later. Rachel a cat in the preserve died.
Working together. That's what this book is all about. Trying to get the big cats safe. He has to work with Hudson the Kenyan who was a former killer, Deputy Metcalf, the friend to the family, Sandy Ben's girlfriend, Louis, and Rafael, his trainers, this is especially true because his parents are missing in Africa without a trace. On top of all this the person who was supposed to help Ben run the preserve is injured in a car accident and is in crucial condition. This heads to why Ben is in charge of the animal preserve.
This book would be great for anybody who like a mixture of survival, mystery and a little bit of adventure. Sniper by Theodore Taylor is an overall great book. But kids, under 9 should get clearance from their parents.
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