School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-It's 1849, and though 12-year-old Zeb would rather remain in their familiar log cabin with his six siblings, Pa places him onboard a steamship bound for St. Louis and Great-Uncle Seth's tannery to learn a trade. Feeling lonely and unhappy about the prospect of working "with a bunch of smelly old hides," Zeb is thrilled when a fine gentleman strikes up a conversation with him. Chilly Larpenteur's specialty is helping wealthy travelers share their riches-through rigged card games. He asks Zeb to become his apprentice upon their arrival in St. Louis, assuring the boy that his work is philanthropic since he donates part of his winnings to orphans. Zeb accepts, but it's not long before Chilly's true colors show and the boy realizes that he has been flimflammed. However, he's made real friends along the way, including a blind old Indian chief known for his visions and a grouchy slave who burns everything he cooks. How they beat Chilly at his own game makes for a tale that Mark Twain would be proud to call his own. It takes a lot of gumption to create a protagonist who follows in the footsteps of Tom Sawyer, and Helgerson succeeds. Full-page illustrations, an author's note about 19th-century life along the Mississippi, and a hilarious glossary are added bonuses.-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
Returning to the banks of the Mississippi in his second novel, Helgerson (Horns and Wrinkles) creates an enjoyable yarn, albeit one that feels a little rushed. Twelve-year-old Zebulon "Zeb" Crabtree is sent down the river to St. Louis to become an apprentice tanner, much to his dismay ("when I tried to point out that working with hides might rip my nose apart, Pa claimed that us Crabtrees were made of sterner stuff"). On the riverboat, a gambler named Chilly persuades him to be his apprentice instead, and Zeb is quickly inaugurated into the gambling underworld, hiding behind the wall of a poker room to signal other players' hands to Chilly and getting mixed up in Chilly's attempt to cheat a blind Native American chief. Eventually, Zeb has doubts about the life he's chosen and is forced to make some hard choices. Zeb has a strong voice and personality (though his cluelessness strains believability), and the supporting characters-including the chief's daughter and a slave named Ho-John-are well-defined. A thorough afterword and glossary nicely supplement the novel, but the quick resolution will leave readers wanting. Ages 8-12. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) In 1849, twelve-year-old Zeb Crabtree takes a little trip down the Mighty Mississip, innocent, alone, and with seventy dollars in cash with which to pay his tanner's apprenticeship fee. No sooner has he boarded the side-wheeler Rose Melinda than he meets up with a crafty gambler and grifter extraordinaire, one Charles "Chilly" Larpenteur. Zeb (figuratively) and his money (literally) make their way into Chilly's pocket, with the latter being lost in a poker game and the former seduced into a complicated con in which he and Chilly "help rich gents be a bit more charitable and Christian-like with their pocketbooks." Zeb's gullible dreams of raining "good deeds down on the needy" (plus an encounter with a blind Indian seer who imparts ambiguous moral advice) allow him to shelve his nagging worries about the scheme. That he is neither superhero nor helpless victim is a tribute to the plot's nuances, which are occasionally overwhelmed by the enormous cast of characters, all of whom open the door wide for a sequel to this rousing tale. A full house of appended author's notes, including information about apprenticeships, vision quests, and traveling medicine shows, provides rich historical background, while a glossary covers vivid colloquialisms and potentially unfamiliar words and terms. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
It's 1849, and "twelve-year-olds don't have much bargaining power," so Zebulon Crabtree finds himself shipped off to his great-uncle Seth in St. Louis to be a tanner's apprentice. He doesn't quite get there, however, and ends up a gambler's apprentice instead, practicing fake shuffles, false cuts and dealing seconds, and even using a peephole and telegraph wire to signal his mentor, Chilly Larpenteur. Trouble is, Zeb has a conscience and knows he must extricate himself from his apprenticeship and give up the idea of becoming a riverboat gambler. Inspired by Twain's Life on the Mississippi, Helgerson's folksy and chatty tale is also reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn in Zeb's struggles with his conscience and its themes of slavery and freedom. Fifty-plus pages of backmatter seem excessive, though the afterword is interesting in its discussion of apprenticeships, Native Americans, slavery and traveling medicine shows. An enjoyable romp in the spirit of Twain. (bibliography, glossary) (Historical fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Helgerson (Horns & Wrinkles, 2006) brings readers another Mississippi River adventure. A hilarious opening scene in which Zeb's pa suggests vocation after vocation for the 12-year-old boy's apprenticeship begins the lad's eventful jaunt to 1849 St. Louis. En route via riverboat to a dreary future as a tanner, Zeb encounters a slick gambler named Chilly Larpenteur, who offers to mentor the boy in the high-class world of cardsharping and underhanded dealing. When Zeb's conscience begins to worry at their swindling ways, Chilly assures him they're simply teaching rich cheaters a lesson, and that they'll donate their earnings to orphans. Right. Helgerson surrounds Zeb with a lively cast of scruffy no-goodniks, a determined slave, and a mystical Indian father-daughter duo, and lets the boy work out for himself whom to trust and how to act. A glossary at the end will help kids navigate Zeb's folksy-funny narration, separating simple blimblam from a full-on case of the fantods. A solid choice for fans of high-spun yarns and not-too-tall tales.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2009 Booklist
