Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 8 Nov 2007
Ten-year-old Tom Griffin and his older brother, twelve-year-old Johnny, live in Dublin, Ireland, with their parents and a teenaged half-sister, Grainne. Grainne has not seen or heard from her mother since she was a baby, and now her mother is coming from America for a visit. Grainne is nervous about the visit. Will seeing her mother heal the hurt of being abandoned by this woman?
The boys' mother, Sandra, decides to take the boys somewhere else during the visit by Grainne's mother, and arranges a holiday in Finland for herself and the boys. They are going to have a grand adventure. This story is told in alternating chapters as Tom and Johnny become acquainted with sled dogs and their handler and then go off into the wilderness on an exciting dog sled ride to a remote lodge. And as Grainne nervously waits for the arrival of her birth mother.
The boys are excited about the chance to help feed and water the sled dogs, and to help with camp chores. They are having a grand time, until their mother disappears. Her lead dog is a rogue who decides to go his own way, and she becomes lost in the cold, snowy uninhabited forest. It is dark, and the sled tips over and injures Sandra. She can't get back on the sled, or get the dogs under control.
The boys decide to take a team of dogs and sled and search for their mother on their own, and they sneak out of the lodge and harness the dogs. It's dark and cold, with deep snow, and the trail is not clear, but their lead dog seems to know where he is going...or does he?
Tween readers can relate to the realistic characters and their emotions as Roddy Doyle tells this dramatic story in sparse, simple language, while keeping the tension high. With the rowdy rambunctious boys and their adventure in Finland, the frantic search for their mother, and the angst of a teenaged girl meeting the mother who abandoned her, there is something for everyone in this exciting story.
Reviewed by: Grandma Bev
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moving, intelligent, addictive, 17 Jun 2008
The last reviewer said that this had school reading list written all over it. Well I guess I'm about to prove his point. I'm a secondary English teacher and this was left at our school by a Heinemann rep. Seeing as I was the only one who seemed vaguely interested in this book I took it home.
Now, I'm no Roddy Doyle devotee (I've never even wanted to read any of his work before) so if you're looking for a Doyle fan's perspective, some of the other reviews might help you more.
What I can say is that when reps leave novels for us I rarely finish them and never enjoy them, but I did enjoy this - a lot.
A previous reviewer mentioned that there is little of Roddy Doyle's humour in the novel, and well, I guess he's right. There aren't any jokes. Where I disagree with the previous reviewer is his assessment of the parallel storylines. I felt that they worked brilliantly. I wanted to know about the boys. I wanted to know about their sister. I found that my interest in both story lines was maintained throughout. And the two ideas are cleverly linked.
For me it was just subtle enough, and Doyle fills this book with subtle portrayals of character delivered in precise uncomplicated prose. Most teenage fiction misses the mark for me, but I believed this. It was great.
I picked this up (having forgotten about it on Monday, by Wednesday night I'd finished it. Now I am a bit of a soppy 'eejit' I admit, but the end to this book made me cry.
School reading list, here we come! - given a fair wind and a bit of leeway in the budget at least.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great Writers Talent Lost in the Wilderness., 1 Feb 2008
Roddy Doyle is one of my favourite authors, after being thrilled by the Barrytown Trilogy I've followed his writing through Paddy Clarke, Paula Spencer and the Last Roundup books. I thought writing a memoir of his parents was a little indulgent but I still enjoyed reading it. His Meanwhile Adventure kids book I thought a scream but even so `Wilderness' didn't make me rush to the library on it's publication date. From the blurb I'd seen it would appear Roddy had written a book for teenagers with school reading list written all over it.
My memories of school and the `approved' list put me off reading for years. I used to sneak James Bond novels into school so I didn't have to read the earnest rubbish with a transparent `do the right thing' message the council had approved. Still as an ex-teacher and all round great writer maybe Roddy would write a book were the message wasn't spelled out at every turn and the characters had enough human qualities to at least make it stand up.
Well the warmth of a Roddy Doyle novel is present but the two parallel stories to drive home the message dilutes its own suitably earnest stand, but more worryingly there is absolutely no humour in this book at all. Since Roddy Doyle is one of the funniest writers to ever improve a sheet a plain paper by adding his wit to it this is the most perplexing thing I've ever come across. Since, I imagine, Roddy cannot help but be humorous and entertaining I can only imagine that this has been deliberately edited out under the misguided impression that school children don't enjoy a good laugh. When I was at school we were constantly looking for a good laugh normally to the detriment of our studies. I can't but help thinking an opportunity to mix the two has been squandered.
If Roddy Doyle is on next terms reading list, take my advice, smuggle a book in, anything by Roddy Doyle except this one.
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