Teen & Kids Book ReviewsBook Reviews by AgeRecent Book Reviews
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Additional InformationLand of Mountains
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9.0 | |
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0.0 (0) |
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| Author | Jinx Schwartz |
| Illustrator | - No Illustrator |
| Publisher | Treble Heart Books, 2003 |
| Genres | Action / Adventure / Sports • Family & Friends • Humorous • Lessons / Behavior • Mystery / Suspense |
| Age Range | 3rd through 5th • 6th through 9th • High School |
 
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A ten year old's new home on an exotic Caribbean island proves so fascinating she quickly forgets she didn't want to leave Texas. After all, where better than a jungle world teeming with voodoo, mystery, and a really pesky zombie, to indulge her favorite pastime: snooping.
In this humorous mystery, award-winning author Jinx Schwartz transports the reader to another time and place where rivers, and little girls, ran wild and free.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Land of Mountains by Jinx Schwartz was a fantastic book. But I have to say, that had I seen this on a shelf in the bookstore I would have passed it by due to the poor cover art and almost completely unreadable title. (Sorry, Ms. Schwartz, but you really need to talk to your publisher about redesigning your cover!)Now I'd really like to see this happen because I thought this book was great and I'd like to see it reach more readers. Lizbuthann is a 10 year old mix between Shirly Temple, Pippi Longstockings, and Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird. A girl with a ton of spunk and not afraid to go on an adventure. She moves with her family to Haiti because her father is a high ranking contractor in a work camp building a damn for the island. All the families of the US workers are housed in a military base style housing development for the duration of the project. She makes friends with the other kids in the camp, but most of her time is spent exploring the island and learning about the people who live there. She is fascinated by how different the people are from the culture she is used to as a young girl living in 1950's Texas and makes friends with all sorts of people on the island with her natural curiosity. And gets in TONS of trouble. She learns about voodoo (or at least the parts of it that would be interesting to a 10 year old) and soon comes face to face with a zombie outside her bedroom window. The whole book was hysterical - one of my favorite excerpts came in the early chapters: "I'd thrown up my hand during Show and Tell so I could share it with my classmates. "My Daddy's a dam builder, he's going to Hell, and he's taking us with him," I'd begun, only to have my favorite teacher, Mrs. Baldwin, grab my hand and march me straight to the principals office." She is actually trying to tell the class that she is going to Haiti (HAY-tee) with her family, not Hades (HAY-dees). This is one of the great examples in the story of the authors ability to really make me laugh out loud and her really get into a child's head and think like they do. The plot was great and I didn't know what would happen till the very end. Although I felt the last few chapters were a tad rushed, overall the story was a great adventure for girls. I think that boys would like the story too, but if you have an adventurous daughter this would be right up your alley. The only things I think some parents might find objectionable about this book are brief discussions of the voodoo religion and some negative racial references which are appropriate for the time period and are dealt with in a positive way. Don't agree with me? Post your own review! :) |
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Reviewed by Mamma B
November 20, 2010 #1 Reviewer View all my reviews Report this review |
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