Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Lyons Public Library | M PARKER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Parker, R. 2007 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Sheridan Public Library | Parker | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
New York Times bestselling author Robert B. Parker's first novel for young readers
There is something evil in the air ; Bobby senses it. Who is that man he saw arguing with his pretty new English teacher? Bobby knows he should mind his own business, but times are confusing. World War II just ended, and the world is changing? Bobby's world, especially. There's Joanie, for one'why does being her friend feel awkward? And then there are his buddies, the junior varsity Edenville Owls'basketball players in need of a leader. Can they help each other off the court as well as they can on it? They will need to.
Author Notes
Robert Brown Parker is an American fiction writer of mysteries. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and earned his BA degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He went on to earn his master's degree in English literature from Boston University. He started his career working in advertising. After some years, he went back to school to earn his PhD in English from Boston University in 1971. He then began his writng career while teaching at Northeastern University. He decided to become a full-time writer in 1979. His most popular works were the 40 novels written about the private detective Spenser. The ABC Television Network developed the television series "Spenser: For Hire", based on the character in the mid-1980s. Parker also wrote nine novels based on the character Jesse Stone and six novels based on the character Sunny Randall.
On January 18, 2010, Robert Parker died suddenly of a heart attack at his home in Cambridge Massachusetts.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-It's 1945, and Bobby and his suburban Boston friends spend their free time traveling to other schools to compete in basketball games. Their junior high does not have a gym or a coach, so when it is announced that independent teams will be included in the state JV tournament, this group of six friends who call themselves the Owls feels a new sense of purpose. Outside circumstances threaten their single-mindedness, however. As Bobby sees a romance blossoming between his childhood friend Joanie and fellow Owl Nick, he is torn between his own feelings for the girl and loyalty to his pal. And when some members of the Owls witness a man threatening their pretty young teacher, they are drawn into a mystery that could endanger all of them. This first young-adult novel from an Edgar Award-winning author brings the same mix of fully developed characters and suspenseful prose that readers have come to expect in his adult works. While Parker's nostalgic references to various radio and movie personalities of the post-World War II era may not be fully appreciated by the target audience, students will identify with the emotional turmoil that characterizes Bobby's adolescence. This thought-provoking mystery will be a solid addition to middle school collections.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Parker, the bestselling author of detective novels for adults, brings a healthy dose of noir to his first outing for children, set in the years following the end of WWII. Narrating is Bobby Murphy, an eighth-grader at Center Junior High in a town called Edenville. His school lacks a gymnasium, so Bobby and a few close friends start up an informal rag-tag basketball team, which plays against teams from other local junior high schools. As the Owls-the group's chosen team name-improve their skills in their quest to win a statewide tournament played at Boston Garden, Bobby's relationship with longtime friend Joanie Gibson begins to grow, causing tension with his teammate, Nick, who's interested in her romantically. Additionally, Bobby finds himself wrapped up in a mystery involving his new, young English teacher, Miss Delaney; one day, while staying late, he sees a strange man being rough with her outside the school. He scares the man off, but despite her insistence that he drop the matter, Bobby investigates further with the help of Joanie and his teammates. They unravel the secret that Miss Delaney is hiding, and Bobby discovers a world of suburban white supremacy and neo-Nazism. Though Parker saturates his writing with period slang and details, the book holds a timely resonance as Bobby strives to act in a noble, moral way in a confusing post-war era. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School) Edenville is a fitting name for the idyllic Massachusetts town where, just after the close of World War II, Bobby Murphy enjoys such innocent boyhood pastimes as cowboy films, radio shows, comic books, and basketball. But Bobby's simple life becomes more complex as he enters the eighth grade. His pickup team, the Edenville Owls, becomes his school's first JV basketball team (though they have neither gym nor coach); he develops a crush on his old friend, Joanie; and he discovers a dark secret involving his new teacher, Miss Delaney. One evening, Bobby witnesses Miss Delaney arguing with a suspicious-looking man. When she arrives at school the next day with visible bruises, Bobby becomes concerned and enlists Joanie to help him track down the stranger. As Bobby pursues Miss Delaney's assailant, he discovers a hidden world of violence, domestic abuse, and racial prejudice. Parker's first novel for young adults is an homage to a bygone era -- equal parts Americana, Norman Rockwell, and Archie comics. His direct but evocative prose transforms a familiar Hardy Boys-style mystery into a suspenseful coming-of-age story that is well crafted and satisfying. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Trying his hand at writing for a younger audience, the bestselling novelist wraps a tale of bigotry and spousal abuse around a pick-up basketball team's drive to the state tournament, and the hormone-driven confusion of its young coach. As 8th-grader Bobby struggles to understand changes in his feelings for long-time good buddy Joanie, he takes on two challenges. One is to find ways to make the closely knit team he and his friends have put together good enough to win, and the other is to help his stubbornly silent new teacher Miss Delaney, who is being regularly visited by a menacing stranger and comes to class with bruises on her face. Despite clumsy attempts to create a sense of period--the plot, set in 1945, periodically grinds to a halt while Bobby nostalgically details favorite comics, movies and radio shows--Parker crafts a suspenseful tale. The stranger, who turns out to be Miss Delaney's ex and a deranged white supremacist, comes off as simultaneously dangerous and ridiculous, and Bobby gets through thanks to a justified conviction that he can always figure out what to do. A good bit of storytelling, though written from an older adult's vantage point--compelling basketball action, too. (Fiction. 12-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Edgar-winning-author Parker, whose characters are among the most enduring in the crime-fiction canon, offers his first novel for a young audience in this nostalgic story, set in 1945. In a small, coastal Massachusetts town, eighth-grader Bobby witnesses a parking-lot altercation between his pretty new teacher and a shady-looking fellow. Then Miss Delaney comes to school with facial bruises, and Bobby, convinced that the unsavory man is to blame, recruits his best friends to protect her. Bobby has also organized his friends into a basketball team, the Owls, and with only Bobby as a stand-in coach, the boys begin to compete and dream of winning a local tournament. Readers without any basketball background may be lost in the lengthy game specifics, but the team's intrepid energy on the court echoes the Owls' determination to help their teacher and solve the mystery of her troubling past. The appearance of a few derogatory racial terms, although true to the characters' voices, may jar contemporary readers, who may also skip over purposefully inserted, stream-of-consciousness passages filled with historical and cultural references. The poignant, well-articulated coming-of-age moments deepen the heart-pounding suspense, though, and Bobby's questions of what it means to be honorable and to feel attraction to a female friend will draw readers as much as will the exciting mystery. See the accompanying Story behind the Story for Parker's take on writing for youth. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2007 Booklist