Monday, March 12, 2012

Lionboy

Lionboy by Zizou Corder. Published 2004.

I have so many mixed feelings about this book. Sometimes the writing was amazing and the plot moved along and I really wanted to know what was going to happen next. Problem was, those moments only happened for me when the boy was on the Circus boat. The author's description of the circus was so mesmerizing and fantastic and I wish she (or they because a mother wrote it with her daughter and they created an alias as their author name) had only written a book about a boy on a circus boat. But unfortunately they didn't.
What bothered me was that it was really hard for me to suspend my disbelief. It was suppose to be set in the near future where only the extremely rich have cars, all the kids have asthma, supposedly from pollution, and one boy can talk to cats because his DNA was crossed with a leopard. Um...okay. Also, I get that asthma is a serious illness, but it didn't have that same sense of dread as a made up illness like letmosis in Cinder. I found myself saying, "So what?" every time they talked about asthma. Why couldn't it have just been a story about a boy trying to help some lions escape back to Africa? It wouldn't have even needed to be set in the future or anything. Paint me a better picture of the world. Make it seem more dire then our current one if that matters to the plot. Argh, I'm going to stop after this last rant. It is suppose to be a trilogy, so the book doesn't have a satisfactory ending either. I loved some of the description, but the plot bored me so much that I don't even think I'll read the rest just to find out what happens.
I was not happy with it, but some students really enjoy this and the setting details for the circus can be really beautiful. The action also has high tension at moments, so it might not have been my cup of tea but give it a shot if the plot sounds intriguing to you.

Interest level: Grades 5-8 Reading level: Grade 6
Genre: sci-fi
First in series of three.

Comparable titles: Wonder Circus, Warriors series

Book Connections: circus, lions, asthma health, waterways of France, geography

I did mark the following passages because I thought they were great writing examples:

Character description- "He must have been six and a half feet tall, broad-shouldered in white breeches and a green velvet tailcoat, and his fine blond hair, almost as pale as ice, hung down his back in a thick ponytail. His eyes were piercing blue, his skin pale and dry, and he looked as if he stayed up far too late and had done so all his life. In one pale hand he had a glass of what looked like brandy, and before him on the desk was a pile of papers and a large metal box absolutely full of money: masses of it." pg. 53

Setting- "It was round, as high as three stories; with seats in circles around the edges and galleries of seating rising up around the sides. The roof was like a tent, crimson and white and gold, swooping up to a high point in the middle, from which hung a glorious chandelier, rippling and tinkling with dangling glass prisms and crystals. The seats in the first galleries were crimson velvet, with gold curved legs; others were long benches of wood. In one or two special boxes among the galleries, Charlie could see what looked like thrones, surrounded by crimson velvet curtains held back by golden cherubs. And in the middle was the circus ring, clean and open and promising, forty-two feet wide, sprinkled all over with clean fresh sawdust. There was a faint and particular circus smell: of animal, sawdust, greasepaint, and the faint leftover aroma of audience--beer and perfume and fish and chips." Pg. 85

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