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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J Fic Slade, A. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
SEVEN-YEAR-OLD MATTHEW DISAPPEARS one day on a walk into Horshoe, a dust bowl farm town in Depression-era Saskatchewan. Other children go missing just as a strange man named Abram Harsich appears in town. He dazzles the townspeople with the promises of a rainmaking machine. Only Matthew's older brother Robert seems to be able to resist Abram's spell, and to discover what happened to Matthew and the others. "A remarkably effective sense of atmosphere."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred "Choose it for science-fiction fans who are ready for something a little different."--School Library Journal, Starred "Beautifully written novel . . . strong character development, an authentic setting, and some genuinely spooky moments."--VOYA, Starred A Governor General's Award for Children's Literature An ALA Best Books for Young Adults From the Hardcover edition.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-In a bone-dry summer during the Great Depression, Matthew, seven, disappears from a small prairie community in Saskatchewan. Soon afterward, Abram Harsich comes to town, and before long nearly everyone has fallen under his mesmerizing spell. He claims to be a meteorologist and enlists local men to help him build a "rainmill" that will bring an end to the crippling drought. Only Matthew's brother Robert, 11, who has visions of his dead Uncle Edmund trying to warn him of something, and bookish Uncle Alden remain skeptical and apart. In time, memories of Matthew fade; then other children disappear. Only Robert really remembers his brother and alone he pieces together what has become of the missing children. Suspense builds to a searing and satisfying climax involving malevolent "traders" from the stars. As odd as this may sound, it is a logical conclusion to a story filled with mystery. The plot is strewn with foreshadowing, portents of evil, and foreboding. In Robert's mind, imagery invoking the desert, ancient Egypt, and the Bible abounds, and the spare prose is poetic in its evocations of both the 20th-century setting and the ancient world. Robert is a strong, stalwart character who loves words and stories, and has some understanding of the universe as mysterious. This unusual, well-written story will definitely exercise readers' imaginations. Choose it for science-fiction fans who are ready for something a little different.-Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in drought-devastated Saskatchewan between the world wars, Slade's (Tribes) eerie novel opens as seven-year-old Matthew Steelgate gets into a truck driven by a stranger with hypnotic powers of persuasion, a stranger who says, several times, "I was never young." Readers can predict the boy's disappearance; Matthew's 11-year-old brother, Robert, seems to sense it even before he is officially told. The starkness of the Steelgates' loss and the unfathomable harshness of the drought tip into the surreal realm when the stranger reappears. He uses mass hypnosis on the small-town residents to get them to build a "rainmill"-and to somehow induce them to forget about Matthew and the two other children who disappear shortly afterward. Robert puts his pluck and intuition to work and uncovers the villain's bizarre, nefarious schemes, which expand the notion of "dust" well beyond the Dust Bowl (and toward the cosmic properties assigned it by Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy). Slade sustains the hallucinatory, off-kilter tone of a prolonged nightmare right through the heroic climax. Readers who like their science fiction on the dark, literary side will be hooked. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate, Middle School) In the down-and-out town of Horshoe, Saskatchewan, dust is everywhere because of a drought that seems endless. When Abram Harsich comes to town with his Mirror of All Things and his grand plans to build a rain machine, residents are mesmerized. They forget their troubles--and their children who are mysteriously disappearing--and throw themselves into the construction of the gigantic contraption. But eleven-year-old Robert can't forget his brother Matthew, one of the first to disappear, and unlike the others who gaze into the Mirror of All Things and see their hearts' desires, when Robert looks, he sees a battlefield in France and his dead uncle warning him of something evil. An introspective boy who loves reading science fiction, Robert watches the ensuing events quietly and, with increasing unease, begins to question what is happening. In a chilling conversation with Harsich, he discovers dust at the heart of the mystery, dust that is a close cousin to that fantastic substance in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Unlike Pullman's grand fantasy, this one is neatly limited to the boundaries of Robert's world. Robert's dogged determination and heroic actions are the steady focus of the tale, though the riveting climax of the story makes it clear that a complex other world exists that may lend itself to exploration in future books. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In this mesmerizing variation of the "stranger comes to town" plot, a Saskatchewan farming community falls under the spell of a mysterious visitor. Only 11-year-old Robert sees through the smoke and mirrors when the newcomer, Mr. Abram, promises to end the area's drought if the town helps him build a rainmill. Robert's younger brother, Matthew, disappeared some months earlier, and after the arrival of Mr. Abram, several other children do, too, but the adults quickly become oblivious to the loss. Robert, who immerses himself whenever possible in adventure stories, eventually tries to rescue his brother and break the hold of the devil-like Abram. Magic enters the story in the form of butterflies, frozen statues, and a dust-like substance connected to the soul. Well-chosen imagery, skillfully crafted sentences, and a remarkably effective sense of atmosphere distinguish Slade's work. Although the two differ in setting and subject, Dust resembles last year's Tribes in its originality as well as its deft execution. (Fiction. 11+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 8^-12. Set in Saskatchewan during its dust-bowl years, Slade's novel begins eerily as seven-year-old Matthew vanishes on his first walk into town alone. Matthew's parents and the entire community appear to accept and forget his disappearance, but a strange set of circumstances leads his 11-year-old brother, Robert, to conclude that Matthew is still alive. It seems that Matthew's disappearance, as well as the vanishing of several other area children, corresponds with the appearance of Abram Hamsich, a stranger who promises to build a rainmaking machine that will end the terrible drought. Hamsich soon has the whole town mesmerized, except for Robert (and his uncle), who gradually realizes Hamsich's horrific true plans. Calling up Ray Bradbury's 1962 classic Something Wicked This Way Comes and the legend of the immortal soulless wanderer, Slade's haunting story shows the triumph of imperfect hope over manifest evil. Frances Bradburn