The Wondrous Journals of Dr.
Wendell Wellington Wiggins. By Lesley M.M. Blume. Illustrated by David
Foote. Knopf. $16.99.
The Scorpions of Zahir. By
Christine Brodien-Jones. Delacorte Press. $17.99.
The Secret Zoo #4: Traps and
Specters. By Bryan Chick. Greenwillow/HarperCollins. $16.99.
Romeo and Juliet Together (and
alive!) At Last. By Avi. Scholastic. $6.99.
An exceptionally
clever updating of 19th-century novels about the exploration of lost
worlds (yes, those of Jules Verne, among others), Lesley M.M. Blume’s The Wondrous Journals of Dr. Wendell
Wellington Wiggins is a delight both to read and to look at. Presented as a series of long-lost diaries of
a famed “paleozoologist,” the book tells the story of Dr. Wiggins’ six journeys
to the four, or rather six, corners of the world – South America, North
America, Europe, Africa, Asia & Australia, and Antarctica & the North
Pole – and the bizarre creatures and plants he discovered absolutely
everywhere. The discoveries are
brilliantly realized in “notebook sketches” by David Foote, who manages to draw
everything from Wiggins’ sour-faced mother to the Amazonian Umbrella Fish and
Mirrored Pigradillo with equal aplomb.
Blume really goes to town with the concept of discovering previously
unknown and utterly bizarre species, being sure to have her diarist give them
Latin-sounding names, as any good scientist would: the Hundred-Horned Bull is Centumgeminus Bucerus Bovis, the
Pin-Headed Desert Giants are
designated Acus Capitulum Solitudo
Gigantus, Hermit Crab Humans are Eremita
Crustacea Populi – all this almost makes sense, which is one of the most
wonderful aspects of the book. But not the most wonderful. The best things here are the tales of
Wiggins’ adventures up, down and around the various continents, and his
descriptions of what he finds while on his “mission to uncover remnants of the
ancient animal world.” For example, the
Mighty Trelephants are gill-equipped carnivores that have horns the shape of
slender trees, upon which birds perch – only to be caught and consumed. The Trelephants go extinct after consuming
“poison-winged falcons.” Oh, and there
is an “editor’s” footnote (one of many in the book) contrasting their
carnivorous ways with the herbivorous appetites of modern elephants. Then there is the Devil’s Triangle Magnet
Tribe (Magneticus Populus ab Bermuda):
a cross between humans and thick-scaled fish, tribe members used underwater
magnets to attract the iron in the blood of fish, unfortunately forgetting that
this would also attract their own blood, and perishing when the magnets held
them so tightly that they could not move their arms or legs or feed
themselves. Blume’s created voice of Dr.
Wiggins is so perfect – the dedicated 19th-century scientist
uncovering marvel after marvel with equal parts boldness and modesty – that
adults as well as young readers will be swept into this delightfully offbeat
book from start to finish. And Foote’s
drawings must be seen to be believed – or disbelieved, as the case may be.
Exciting in its own
way but altogether more ordinary in plot and prose, Christine Brodien-Jones’
(+++) The Scorpions of Zahir is a
pleasantly complex archeological adventure, set in Morocco and starring
11-year-old Zagora Pym, daughter of desert explorer Dr. Charles Pym and sister
of astronomy-obsessed Duncan. Part
mystery, part adventure, part coming-of-age story, the book opens with a very
standard gambit – Dr. Pym receives a mysterious letter from a partner who had
been lost and was presumed dead – and continues as father and children embark
on the usual Indiana Jones-style
expedition featuring prophecies, hyenas, an exotic tribe, and a rogue planet approaching
and endangering Earth. A lot of this is
patently absurd, even by fantasy standards: “No one knows precisely how near to
Earth the planet will come, but it is a fact that Morocco lies directly in its
path.” A small country directly in the
path of an entire planet? Umm…no. In any case, Zagora is “determined not to be
frightened of anything,” but soon finds out that there is plenty to be worried
about – “even the dromedary is scared,” one character says. Zagora repeatedly sees an enchanted oryx,
learns about killer scorpions (those of the book’s title), and sees a portrayal
of two futures of which “of course…only one will happen” (and a good thing,
too, as it turns out). Zagora discovers
that she has “desert sight,” which comes in mighty handy as the adventures
progresses, and eventually she is responsible for turning the rogue planet
aside, overcoming the scorpions, and generally behaving heroically, if quite
unbelievably. The book ends with a setup
for a sequel, which readers enchanted by the magical elements of this tale will
look forward to seeing.
The Secret Zoo series has enchantments of its own – three books
full of them so far. The fourth, Traps and Specters, ups the danger level
of siblings Noah and Megan and their best friends, Ella and Richie, who by this
time have spent more than a year helping the denizens of the Secret Zoo. This time the four Action Scouts have to
protect both human and animal allies: the evil “Shadowist” DeGraff has captured
three Descenders, and the police are holding two animals they consider
dangerous. The series is becoming more
far-fetched the longer it continues, but Bryan Chick has never pretended to
anything approaching realism, as the narrative sometimes reminds readers:
“Coasting on wide wings, the Descender looked like something out of a fairy
tale.” And: “At the maze, the four
friends crawled into the darkness and steered clear of the pop-out-at-you
zombies that looked a lot like their teachers in white face paint and smears of
eye shadow.” Actually, that scene does
make sense: this episode takes place at Halloween, which also explains why Ella
is wearing a Wonder Woman cape and carrying a Lasso of Truth; and the timing
allows Chick to create a series of predictable but fast-paced scenes in which
Halloween costumes and genuine peculiarities are intermingled to the confusion
of pretty much everyone. Traps and Specters gets a (+++) rating
for fans of The Secret Zoo sequence,
who will enjoy the further adventures of characters who do not change very much
at all from book to book but simply confront an increasing series of rather
inept instances of villainy. There is
certainly humor here: “Richie stood frozen in his nerd costume, his pants
pulled high, his white socks exposed.” But
a lot of the amusement, and a lot of the adventure, feels a little tired at
this point, as if it (or something much like it) has happened before and will
no doubt happen again, in the next book.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is also a tale that
happened before – Shakespeare took the story from an earlier one, as often in
his plays – and heaven knows it is a tale that has been told again and again
and again since Elizabethan times, in
every way, shape, form, arrangement and format.
Some of the post-Shakespeare versions were altered to have happy
endings, but few, if any, were rewritten as out-and-out comedies until Avi came
up with Romeo and Juliet Together (and
alive!) At Last in 1987. Now
available in paperback, the book centers on eighth-graders Peter Saltz and
Anabell Stackpoole, who like each other but are too shy to do anything about
it, so of course they are cast as Romeo and Juliet in a production run by
Saltz’s best friend, Ed Sitrow, who narrates the novel. Things go awry, mostly in predictable
ways. “People didn’t know their
lines. Or they forgot what they were
supposed to be doing on stage, like which direction to walk. True, sometimes they forgot their lines as
well as which way to go.” And that is
just during rehearsals. Then there is a
betrayal – removal of all the labels for the lighting, curtain, and other
electrically driven production elements.
A girl who can barely see anything without glasses loses them –
actually, they break. Once the play
starts, there are miscues galore, pratfalls, costume errors (one cast member is
“dressed like a Chinese peasant”), and of course many mangled lines of dialogue
(“parting is such sweet and sour that tomorrow I shall say good night till it
be sorry”). A lot of this (+++) book is
very, very funny; a lot of it is overdone; and a goodly portion – involving the
petty rivalries and game-playing of the students – is pretty standard
stuff. Avi does stir the pot nicely, as
he usually does, and some of his lines are just right, as when Anabell cannot
get the cork out of the poison that Juliet is supposed to drink: “She had
strength of character but not much strength of strength.” The plays on Shakespeare’s words tend to be
less successful, such as “O lemon table day” for “O lamentable day.” Romeo
and Juliet Together (and alive!) At Last will probably be most enjoyable
for middle-school and high-school students who have either tried performing
Shakespeare or at least thought of doing so.
True, it may scare them away from the prospect, but hopefully it will
make them more enthusiastic about the possibilities.
No comments:
Post a Comment