Module 3 Adventure, Sports & Mystery

Feinstein, John. (2006). VANISHING ACT. NY: Yearling. ISBN 978-0-440-42125-2

Stevie Thomas, 14 year old, from Philadelphia and good friend, 16 year old Susan Carol Anderson, from Goldsboro, North Carolina are both aspiring journalists who attend the tennis U.S. Open in New York where they enter the world of pro tennis and find themselves entangled in a mystery. While in New York, the teens stay with Susan Carol’s uncle, Brendan Gibson who has begun a business as a tennis agent with upcoming star Evelyn Rubin playing her first major championship.

During the play-offs, player, Nadia Symanova, disappears on her way to the Louis Armstrong Stadium court for her match just before 2:00 in the afternoon, causing the match to be cancelled. Her security guards were jostled in the crowds and when they got untangled, she was gone with her racquet bag found a few yards from where it happened. Immediately, exits are sealed and the search begins. Nadia was beautiful, wealthy, and famous, all attributes that could contribute to a kidnapping. Because she wanted US citizenship, it was thought the SVR, the Russian equivalent of the CIA, was involved because of wanting her to continue to represent Russia in the tennis world. It was reported that the SVR made demands that Nadia represent Russia in the Fed Cup and the Olympics for the rest of her career. If the demands were accepted, she would be returned immediately. But the FBI says the SVR are not involved. Someone with a lot to lose sees her as a threat. Perhaps it is an agent, or a clothing company rep with a big contract at stake, if she loses. Rumors begin to swirl with Stevie and Susan Carol determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Suspicion builds as the father’s behavior appears peculiar. At times he acts with calmness as if the kidnapping is an inconvenience then he changes to a brokenhearted father. When the parents, along with Uncle Brendan, are spotted in a restaurant with Glenn O’Donahue, a movie director who does celebrity sensation entertainment, the teens wonder if a movie is being planned.

Complicating matters is the fact that Brendan Gibson signs Makarov to his agency which he blatantly denies. Why would he lie and claim his small agency would not represent her because it would be one of the “big fish” that would sign her. Stevie confronts Susan Carol’s uncle raising the tension and further complicating the mystery.

Events take a nasty turn when Stevie is beaten up as a warning to leave the Symanova case alone. “Would the Symanovas really try to turn their daughter’s kidnapping into something they could make money on?” Kelleher shrugged. “These are tennis people.” “I wouldn’t put anything past them.” Stevie and Susan Carol agree that Nadia or at least her family is involved in something dirty. An unexpected turn of events concerning Uncle Brendan keep Stevie and Susan Carol sleuthing until the mystery is solved.

Author Feinstein takes the reader on taxi rides, subway trains, to the tennis courts and behind the scenes with his detailed descriptions. The reader gets an insider perspective of the players, agents, and media personnel. The Chicago Sun-Times writes, “Feinstein expertly combines tennis action, life in the Big Apple, media coverage, and a realistic plot to explore the fierce competition of tennis.” Tennis players will likely understand the sport’s jargon, but even the non-players will get a sense of the game. The setting is deftly portrayed. The characters of Stevie and Susan Carol are energetic, with dialogue that reflects their respective ages such as their joking with one another about noticing attractive players. The action packed plot moves steadily with twists and turns from beginning to end culminating with a bit of a surprise ending which a good mystery should have. According to Kirkus Reviews, “The prose is taut, the dialogue is snappy, and layers of intrigue are laid down like expert drop shots.”

Paulsen, Gary. 2007. HARRIS AND ME. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc. ISBN 978-0-15-292877-3

The story introduces us to a young, eleven year old city boy whose parents drank, making home an impossibility, causing him to be sent to stay with relatives for extended periods of time. One summer he is sent to the Larson family where he is introduced to his distant relatives, including nine year old cousin, Harris, who live on a farm. Upon meeting the city boy, Harris inquires, “We heard your folks was puke drunks, is that right?” This is the beginning of a brotherly relationship that will blossom over the summer as the boys encounter one adventure after another.

Early in the story the young, city boy acknowledged, “I’d been kicked in the testicles, slammed in the head, worked at the separator until my arms seemed about to fall off, narrowly averted disaster with a manic rooster, wrestled commie jap pigs in a sea of pig crap, ridden horses as big as dinosaurs, had a losing relationship with a lynx, eaten eighteen or twenty meals, and helped to capture mice for God-knows-what purposes.” He was amazed that Harris seemed invulnerable that nothing could harm him, and whatever Harris wanted to do, he backed him up.

The adventures continue one after the other in a fast-paced, highly descriptive, humorous manner. There is hard work to be done interspersed with moments of Harris’ insanity, particularly when the boys are left alone on the farm. Games of playing Gene Autry rounding up rustlers, making bows and arrows to stalk the animals, or Tarzan living on a farm, lead to certain comedic disaster. There are incidents with hand-rolled cigarettes, making war on pigs, mouse hunting, putting a washing machine’s gas engine on an old bicycle, a battery operated electric fence; the adventures hearken back to a time when play was creative and physical.

With the backdrop of the humorous adventures there is the deep sense of relationships and family. The main character said, “The farmyard became a whole way of life.” At the summers’ end he is faced with the prospect of returning home, causing the reader to feel a deep sense of sadness as the time with the Larson family draws to a close. “Crying to myself thinking I felt like I was home.” “I had come to belong here, wanted to be here, thought of this as home, Harris as a brother, and Glennis as a sister, and Knute as a pa, and Clair as a mother, and didn’t, didn’t ever want to leave.”

Paulsen has created an expertly balanced story of caring relationships alongside comedic adventures. Publishers Weekly writes, “Readers will experience hearts as large as farmers’ appetites, humor as broad as the country landscape and adventures as wild as boyhood imaginations…A hearty helping of old-fashioned, rip-roaring entertainment.” The plot is fast paced with one incident following another written with highly descriptive detail, drawing the reader into the fun and mishaps.

Along with the fun, the characters make us aware of the hard work, responsibility, and sense of teamwork needed to keep the farm going. We see them working together to dip the cows, do the milking, and get the work done when the father, Knute, breaks his hand. The setting is deftly drawn as the reader can see and smell the pigpen, the waist high alfalfa field, the muck of the cows in the milking barn. The reader will feel transported to the farm rich with sensory experiences.

Younger readers will enjoy the humor and older readers may have fond memories of a past time. The Horn Book says the book, “Includes laugh-out-loud passages as well as heaps of nostalgia.” Curse words are sprinkled throughout by the character of Harris, but sister, Glennis, gives him a smack to watch his language for every profanity uttered. This could be a factor in choosing the audience for the book. While the story is a fun-filled adventure, the theme of alcoholism and a dysfunctional family is introduced. There is sadness as this boy is passed from relative to relative, many of whom he doesn’t really know, causing him to use shyness as a means of coping with a difficult situation. Readers will rejoice with him at discovering a sense of belongingness with the Larson family, and then want to cry, as he must return to his home. The ending leaves the reader wondering about the boy’s parents and concern for what will happen to him. School Library Journal says it is, “Fast paced, highly descriptive, and funny…This is storytelling in the tradition of Twain and Harte, memorable and humorous and very much telling of human nature.”

Trueman, Terry. 2000. STUCK IN NEUTRAL. New York: HarperTempest. ISBN 0-06-447213-2

Main character, Shawn McDaniel, describes himself as a fourteen year old, wheelchair bound, total retardate with a mental age of 3-4 months. “They think it’s because my brain doesn’t work. They don’t know that is only partially true.” A victim of cerebral palsy, he is unable to control any of his muscles. But he has learned to read, and he has a power of being able to remember everything with total recall. Shawn is aware of the trouble his condition has put on his family and feels sorry for them, understanding that his condition changed all their lives and hurt everyone in the family. Shawn offers a description of what his role is like. “…there’s an actual person hidden inside my useless body; I am in here, I am in here just sort of stuck in neutral.”

Shawn has a terrible dilemma, he is fairly certain that his dad is planning to kill him, though he would be doing it out of love. “You can’t protect yourself at all! …you’ll never be safe. You’re helpless. Hopeless. Maybe you’d be better off if I ended your pain?” Shawn is convinced his dad loves him it’s the seizures that freak him out as he can’t stand to see his son in pain. This fact is what led the father to divorce the mother ten years earlier. Shawn recognizes his dad divorced him not the family because he was unable to cope with Shawn’s disability.

His dad is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, having written a poem about Shawn. Now the father, Sydney, is writing a new book about Earl Detraux who murdered his two year old that was brain damaged. The purpose of the project is to help other families and to heighten people’s awareness about what happens when a child like Shawn comes along. “Dad’s fame,” according to Shawn, “has made him a professional victim of our relationship; his “pain” over me is the foundation of his career.” His dad questions, “Why does God have to make him such a total wreck?” Mom says …”It’s not God. It’s just the way things happen sometimes.” The family has been told by doctors that it is impossible for Shawn to have any awareness.

Through Shawn’s voice, the reader is made aware of the many struggles with which the teen must grapple such as being misunderstood by people who often talk about him as though he wasn’t there, dreaming about girls and wondering about love, what it feels like to be kissed, attending a class at school for the severely and profoundly handicapped, living a life of dependence, and wondering about death and if we have souls. He almost endures a brutal attack by a couple of teenagers waiting for a bus, as he sits in his wheelchair on the front porch. His brother, Paul, rushes to his defense beating the two boys senseless and almost setting them afire. Shawn acknowledges, “Each of us knows too that Paul can’t really protect me forever.”

He is always aware of his dependence on others. These thoughts, memories and the burden of his fear of dying, cause Shawn to decide, “I almost trust Dad to do what’s best. I almost trust him to know whether “ending” my “pain” would be the right thing to do. Almost.” The book’s ending will give the reader pause to think about the outcome.

In this 2001 Michael Printz Honor Book, Terry Trueman wrote from a personal perspective. While the character Shawn was an invented character, the author parents a son like Shawn and used the story to give voice to the thoughts of the disabled teen. The Horn Book writes, “The invention of Shawn is compelling, evoking one of our darkest fears and deepest hopes – that a fully conscious and intelligent being may be hidden within such a broken body, as yet unable to declare his existence.”

Beginning with chapter five, a stanza of the poem, written by Shawn’s father, introduces the text. Trueman acknowledges that none of us knows the thoughts of those profoundly developmentally disabled, yet he creates a voice for Shawn that is believable. The family evokes a sense of realism as each one defines their place and relationship to Shawn and the family. Kirkus Reviews says, “Shawn will stay with readers, not for what he does, but for what he is and has made of himself.”

The author manages to create a sense of action even though the story is internal to the main character’s thoughts. Themes of euthanasia, education for the mentally challenged, quality of life, family support, are but a few of the tough issues brought to the attention of the reader. This book is emotionally intense and thought provoking. School Library Journal states it is an “Intriguing premise, Trueman presents readers with thought-provoking issues. The character of Shawn, compassionately drawn will challenge them to look beyond people’s surfaces.”