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Better Together
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Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Gr 3-6-Let's face it: Coville is alien-oriented. In this tale, kids save the planet by employing friendly miniature monsters found in a creepy old house and de-spelled from their 50-year slumber and enlarged with water to help defeat (or at least keep at bay for now) unfriendly ones. Formerly serialized in five Coville-edited anthologies, this "extensively revised and expanded" version has been cobbled into an ostensibly coherent novel that has a write-as-you-go feel to it. It requires the patience-and flexibility-of loyal grade-school readers who must make discombobulating jumps from gothic (haunted house, ghosts) to magic/fantasy/sci-fi (spells, teleportation, stinky aliens) to metaphysical/religious (the pseudo-Stygian "Land of the Dead," soul-sucking guns) and even to timeless romance. Into this unique stylistic conflation Coville also inserts some puns, a frog-hypnotizing trick, and a few philosophical ruminations (such as, "The world is too vast and strange for any of us to understand all of it" or "What is a human?"). Readers will likely hear more from 12-year-old narrator Anthony, his sister, Sarah, and their feisty grandmother; the ex-enchanted Morleskievich family; wizard Wentar; and probably a few aliens, all revealed through the convoluted, unquestionably weird, but nevertheless highly addictive pen of this facile storyteller.
From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. The subtitle hits the nail on the head, as sixth-grader Anthony and his little sister Sarah find a box of small brass figurines at the estate sale of Morley Manor. When the figures get wet, they come alive as the Morleskievich family that includes a werehuman, a vampire, and a gorgeous snaky-haired siren. The Morleys, as they are now named, have a history that includes science, magic, time travel, and Transylvania; Anthony and Sarah find the fate of the civilized galaxy resting in their hands once the Morleys are restored to their full size. Ghosts, evil twins, aliens, an angel straight out of Dante, and a star-crossed love story are only a few of the elements in this cheerful mix of plot twists. And the final message? The power of a loving family. Not bad, that, and doused with a hefty supply of chuckles and shivers. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Gr 3-6-Let's face it: Coville is alien-oriented. In this tale, kids save the planet by employing friendly miniature monsters found in a creepy old house and de-spelled from their 50-year slumber and enlarged with water to help defeat (or at least keep at bay for now) unfriendly ones. Formerly serialized in five Coville-edited anthologies, this "extensively revised and expanded" version has been cobbled into an ostensibly coherent novel that has a write-as-you-go feel to it. It requires the patience-and flexibility-of loyal grade-school readers who must make discombobulating jumps from gothic (haunted house, ghosts) to magic/fantasy/sci-fi (spells, teleportation, stinky aliens) to metaphysical/religious (the pseudo-Stygian "Land of the Dead," soul-sucking guns) and even to timeless romance. Into this unique stylistic conflation Coville also inserts some puns, a frog-hypnotizing trick, and a few philosophical ruminations (such as, "The world is too vast and strange for any of us to understand all of it" or "What is a human?"). Readers will likely hear more from 12-year-old narrator Anthony, his sister, Sarah, and their feisty grandmother; the ex-enchanted Morleskievich family; wizard Wentar; and probably a few aliens, all revealed through the convoluted, unquestionably weird, but nevertheless highly addictive pen of this facile storyteller.
John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. The subtitle hits the nail on the head, as sixth-grader Anthony and his little sister Sarah find a box of small brass figurines at the estate sale of Morley Manor. When the figures get wet, they come alive as the Morleskievich family that includes a werehuman, a vampire, and a gorgeous snaky-haired siren. The Morleys, as they are now named, have a history that includes science, magic, time travel, and Transylvania; Anthony and Sarah find the fate of the civilized galaxy resting in their hands once the Morleys are restored to their full size. Ghosts, evil twins, aliens, an angel straight out of Dante, and a star-crossed love story are only a few of the elements in this cheerful mix of plot twists. And the final message? The power of a loving family. Not bad, that, and doused with a hefty supply of chuckles and shivers. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
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