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Searching... Stayton Public Library | JF LUBAR | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
For Martin Anderson and his schoolmates, Edgeview Alternative is the end of the road. No other school wants them, but just when Martin thinks there's no hope, he discovers something amazing about himself and his friends--something unbelievable.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
After being expelled from any number of schools, 13-year-old Martin winds up at Edgeview, a publicly funded boarding school and a last-chance alternative. Martin, who narrates, doesn't seem like a delinquent, but he just can't stop himself from taunting his teachers. By the end of his first day he has infuriated the whole staff. Of the kids, Bloodbath is a terror, as are his cronies, but Martin's roommate, "Torchie," is nice enough, although he constantly denies starting the fires that flare up wherever he goes. The other boys Martin gets to know similarly refuse to own up to the particular behavior that landed them at Edgeview. Readers expecting a typical resolution, wherein the boys accept responsibility for their misdeeds, are in for a surprise. Martin's buddies aren't liars and troublemakers at all; unbeknownst even to themselves, they're endowed with paranormal powers: Cheater is telepathic, Trash is telekinetic, Flinch is clairvoyant, etc. Led by Martin, who finally discovers his own hidden talent, the six use their abilities to save Edgeview from Bloodbath and his gang's attempts to sabotage a state inspection. The stakes are a little suspect (would these boys really develop such passionate school spirit?), but on the whole Lubar (Kidzilla) serves up great fun, along with an insight or two for those whose powers are only too human. Ages 12-up. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Sent to a school for kids with behavior problems, smart-aleck Martin meets several classmates whose idiosyncrasies actually mask psychic powers. He and the other boys learn to channel their abilities and, in an unlikely subplot, prevent the school from being shut down by the local government. Notes, drawings, and letters enliven the book but add little to the plot of this slow-starting, thinly developed story. From HORN BOOK Fall 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An eighth grader discovers five schoolmates with psychic powers in this amateurish effort from Lubar. Martin, who was expelled from every other junior high in six counties for mouthing off, is consigned to prison-like Edgeview Alternative School, along with other violent or nerdy teens deemed hopeless misfits. While trying to avoid both the ready fists of hulking bully Lester Bloodbath and the shock therapy meted out by Principal Davis, he meets Torchy, who can start fires without matches or lighters, Cheater Woo, whose test answers are always identical to someone else's, and several others with odd, unconscious talents. Interspersing Martin's tediously self-analytical narrative with flat attempts at humor, trite student essays, repetitive memos to faculty, and mawkish letters from home, Lugar draws the tale to a paradoxical climax in which the self-styled ``psi five'' scuttle Bloodbath's plot to close the school down, but then do their best to earn releases. After realizing that he is psychic, able to read people's deepest fears and hopes, Martin abruptly acquires a sense of responsibility and resolves never to abuse his talent. Padded with aimless subplots and earnest efforts to drum up sympathy for the one-dimensional cast's brutal bullies and ineffectual teachers, this contrived story is a weak alternative to Stephanie Tolan's Welcome to the Ark (1996) or Willo Davis Roberts's The Girl with the Silver Eyes (1980). (Fiction. 12-15)
Booklist Review
Gr. 5^-8. Edgeview Alternative School is the school of last resort for troubled junior-high kids and failed teachers. And it's here that Martin Anderson, who has been kicked out of every school he has ever attended, arrives, only to find himself in trouble from the start. His smart mouth does him in every time. However, he soon makes friends with "Torchie," supposedly a fire starter; "Cheater," suspected of copying other students' work; "Lucky," presumed thief; and, later, "Trash," known for throwing things around. What the five don't know but slowly find out is that each has a special hidden extrasensory talent. The story is a bit simplistic, and some minor characters are stereotypical, for example, "Bloodbath" the bully. But the interrelationships between the five misfits and their interactions with the teachers are credible, and the dialogue is right on target. With plenty of humor, this is a good bet for reluctant readers as well as for kids who like offbeat fiction. --Sally Estes
Library Journal Review
Gr 6-8-Edgeview Alternative School represents the end of the line for Martin Anderson. At 13, he's been kicked out of every school in his district, and feels more than a little skeptical about making a new start in this lonely, gray place. Still, he begins to establish tentative friendships with his pyromaniac roommate, Torchie, and a few of the other kids. They band together to form some small wall of protection against the school's most disturbed bully, Lester Bloodbath. Soon, Martin suspects that his friends are far more than ordinary misfits, and he confronts them with his theories about their psychic powers. His excitement in his discovery turns to disappointment when they turn against him out of fear of being labeled freaks. Fortunately, a class science experiment finally gives Martin the evidence he needs to persuade his friends of their talents. He coaches them as they learn to control their powers and leads them as they face their greatest challenge: a battle with Bloodbath that will decide the fate of the school. This plot is the stuff of most teenagers dreams-the discovery that you and your friends have superpowers. Unfortunately, the story suffers from a frustratingly slow pace and an awkward writing style that alternates between Martin's first-person narrative and letters, memos, and brief boxes of dialogue. Also, the characters lack detail and definition. Stephanie Tolan's Welcome to the Ark (Morrow, 1996) is a darker, but more satisfying tale of extrasensory abilities.-Kelly P. Kingrey, Sabine Parish Library, Many, LA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.