“The happily-ever-after ending delivers a satisfying resolution to a story about tolerance that successfully uses humor and engaging artwork to avoid didacticism—a winner.” from hound and hare
CAN I SEE YOUR I.D.? True Stories of False Identities Barton, Chris Illustrator: Hoppe, Paul Dial (144 pp.) $16.99 | April 14, 2011 978-0-8037-3310-7
In 10 vignettes, Barton profiles successful imposters, both men and women. Some assumed false identities for criminal purposes, others for self-preservation. Possibly the most famous of the 10 is Frank Abagnale, a master con-artist whose exploits were immortalized in the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me if You Can. Asa Earl Carter, a longtime Ku Klux Klan member, adopted the new first name of Forrest and passed himself off as a Cherokee to publish a fake memoir, The Education of Little Tree, a bestseller that became a favorite of middle- and high-school teachers. On the other side of the spectrum is Solomon Perel, a Polish Jew whose Aryan features enabled him to pass as an ethnic German, enroll in the Hitler Youth and survive the Holocaust. Ellen Craft’s light-skinned features enabled her to pass as white. With her husband, William, posing as her slave, they audaciously boarded a train in Charleston, S.C., and journeyed to freedom in Philadelphia. Barton’s use of the secondperson point of view gives these stories dramatic tension and a sense of immediacy. Hoppe’s graphic panels enhance this effect. The brevity of these profiles will appeal to reluctant readers and work well for reading aloud, but a little more back story for some characters might have clarified the motives for their masquerades. Teens in the thick of creating identities themselves will find this riveting. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 12 & up)
HOUND AND HARE
Berner, Rotraut Susanne Illustrator: Berner, Rotraut Susanne Translator: Tanaka, Shelley Groundwood (80 pp.) $18.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-88899-987-0 With In the Town All Year Round (2008), German author/illustrator Berner presented a Richard Scarry–like vision of town life, though populated by people rather than animals. In this translated beginning reader, she sets her story in a specific town, Great Bone (a map of which whimsically decorates the endpapers) and eschews a human populace in favor of anthropomorphic pigs, hounds, hares and other creatures. The illustrations are done in colored pencil and ink, each creature and picture frame defined by soft blue lines. Hounds and hares emerge as regular Hatfields and McCoys and overtly harass each other with wickedly humorous, singsong taunts. Although classmates Harley Hare and Hugo Hound share interests, they’ve absorbed their 490
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families’ prejudices and shun each other. Clever wordplay distinguishes dialogue rife with jabs at the respective detested groups—for example, frustrated because his parents won’t let him participate in the Big Race since they fear the Hounds will attend, Harley Hare thinks, “This place is going to the dogs… I’m…stuck here like a pooch in a pup tent.” Ultimately, he and Hugo Hound rebel, run the race and save fellow runner Pippa Pig when a storm descends, threatening the village. The happily-ever-after ending delivers a satisfying resolution to a story about tolerance that successfully uses humor and engaging artwork to avoid didacticism—a winner. (Early reader. 6-8)
A TEMPLAR’S GIFTS
Black, Kat Scholastic (272 pp.) $17.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-545-05675-5 Series: The Book of Tormod, Vol. 2 This sequel to A Templar’s Apprentice (2010) takes Tormod in circular journeys around Scotland without particularly advancing the plot. The truth o’ yon Tormod’s powers canno’ be denied—or understood very well, given the brogue-laden prose, which lacks the accuracy for true flavor but is still thick enough to interfere with readability. Tormod is on the run with his new friend, the redheaded and equally magically gifted Aine. They skip from adventure to adventure, uncontrolled psychic abilities troubling them while they seek a Knight Templar with the gift of healing. Tormod’s health suffers as his visions become worse. His travels, from discovering a village whose residents have been massacred by soldiers to a brief interaction with Robert the Bruce, are soon only interruptions; primarily his days are occupied by delirium, visions and out-of-control magical temper tantrums. At least his fever dreams are revealing the King of France’s wicked plot against the Templars, but it won’t do him much good as he wanders through the Highlands. A discombobulated traveling tale, best summed up in Tormod’s own stream of consciousness: “Torquil. The Abbot. The Templar. Aine. Bertrand. The bairn. Cornelius. Visions. Dreams. Nightmares.” (Fantasy. 9-11)
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FUTURE IMPERFECT
Breese, K. Ryer Dunne/St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $9.99 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-0-312-64151-1 A slick, fast-paced thriller with a comic-book aesthetic. D-student Ade Patience begins to see the future when he gets a head injury. Chasing “the Buzz”— his name for the high the visions give him—Ade insults tough guys, stages car |