Terence Blacker is the author of the best-selling Ms Wiz books, The Transfer, the Hotshots series about a girls' football team, picture books, and a teenage novel. He has taught creative writing at the University of East Anglia, is a magazine and newspaper columnist, critic, and commentator on the publishing industry. He lives in west London and Norfolk.
In this riveting futuristic tale, Blacker (Homebird) masterfully constructs an intriguing world of remarkable possibilities and chilling consequences that bears an eerie resemblance to the here and now. With the help of best friend Gip, 12-year-old Thomas Wisdom, a model son, breaks into a secret computer file and discovers that his whole life is a lie. His all-too-perfect mother and father are not his real parents. Nor are they CIA agents, as Gip suspects. They are angels sent to earth on a mission to save the planet from destruction. In order to accomplish their goal, they need Thomas's cooperation in their Project to save humankind: he must put his faith in something bigger than himself and give up his free will. While following Thomas on his quest to learn about his past and the angels' plan for him, readers enter a maze filled with changing configurations, perplexing crossroads and allegorical obstacles. Each suspenseful chapter brings Thomas closer to the truth and presents new philosophical questions regarding the sacrifice of individuality for the good of society, and what constitutes good and evil ("Those who aren't with us are against us," says his angel mother). Thomas has the power to change the course of humanity, but becoming an angel may be too high a price. Although the climax and rather abrupt resolution are less convincing than the young hero's struggle to make the right choices, this complex novel raises some thought-provoking questions. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Gr 6-9-Twelve-year-old Thomas Wisdom's seemingly perfect life with his peaceful British family begins to fall apart after he learns that he was adopted and that his parents and sister are really angels sent to Earth to prevent humanity from destroying itself. Their plan is to recruit adopted children and persuade them to cooperate with the Project by using brainwashing, threats, and even violence. When he discovers that even the President of the United States is an angel, Thomas doesn't know whom to trust. Then he is forced to make a decision-whether or not to go along with the Project. He rejects it in favor of free choice and his right to self-determination but pays the price by losing his best and only friend. He realizes that humankind, with all its randomness and unpredictability, is preferable to the life that the angels advocate. None of the characters, with the exception of Gip, Thomas's best friend, or their math teacher, is particularly interesting or likable. After Thomas rejects the Project, the angels in charge decide to abandon it without a fight. This doesn't ring true after what has come before and leaves the ending feeling flat and anticlimactic. The concept of freedom of choice that the book presents is interesting but not new, and this novel doesn't add much originality to the subject. Lois Lowry's The Giver (Houghton, 1993) is a more compelling and better-written book.-Sharon Rawlins, Piscataway Public Library, NJ Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
