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Eddie & the Gang with No Name: Running with the Reservoir Pups.


Eddie & the Gang with No Name: Running with the Reservoir Pups

Colin Bateman

Delacorte Press

1745 Broadway NYC NYC
abbr.
New York City


NYC New York City
, NY 10019

ISBN ISBN
abbr.
International Standard Book Number


ISBN International Standard Book Number

ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 
: 0385732449 $15.95 272 pp.

Entertaining Read........ Recommended 4 stars

The narrative opens with an explanation that Eddie's dad was killed by dragons, no actually he was killed in a submarine accident, well no ... and after several more explanations we learn that Eddie's dad is not dead at all. Eddie is dismayed to learn that the life he has enjoyed is ending, his parents are divorcing, he and his mother will be moving to the city where his mother begins to work as a nurse in the Royal Victoria Maternity Hospital. To say that Eddie is less than enchanted en·chant  
tr.v. en·chant·ed, en·chant·ing, en·chants
1. To cast a spell over; bewitch.

2. To attract and delight; entrance. See Synonyms at charm.
 would be mild. Before long Eddie meets a group of boys who spatter spatter,
n droplets of airborne particulate matter larger than 50 μm that fall to the ground.
 cars with mud then offer the owners a special rate for washing the cars. When Eddie runs into the same group of chancers at the hospital where his mother works things really begin to get interesting. The Reservoir Pups are as crafty a group of street boys as you might meet. A leg-less boy named Captain Black, a hospital security guard named Scuttles, a new man in his mother's life, Alison Beech, a bold kidnapping scheme, a body washer down in the morgue morgue (morg) a place where dead bodies may be kept for identification or until claimed for burial.

morgue
n.
, the Andytown Albinos, a near miss, a desperate plan and a bitter truth all play a part in this fast paced work.

Irish writer Colin Bateman presents an exhilarative, spine tingling work filled with all the zestful agitation, whimsical cast of characters and explosive tension necessary to hold the target audience absorbed from beginning paragraph to ending lines. Eddie &the Gang with No Name: Running with the Reservoir Pups is a well-written publication filled with generously drawn players and a cleverly interwoven in·ter·weave  
v. in·ter·wove , in·ter·wo·ven , inter·weav·ing, inter·weaves

v.tr.
1. To weave together.

2. To blend together; intermix.

v.intr.
, precarious story line. Snappy dialogue, potent and at times astonishing a·ston·ish  
tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es
To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise.
 scenarios are presented with drollery droll·er·y  
n. pl. droll·er·ies
1. A comical or whimsical quality.

2. A comical or whimsical way of acting, talking, or behaving.

3.
a. The act of joking; clowning.

b.
 and smartness. Writer Bateman has captured the fun and excitement of the age in his often awkward hero Eddie. Eddie is so typical a boy that he seems real.

Eddie's reasonable, predictable hurt and distraction following his parents' divorce, and his learning to confront with and make sense of his feelings are presented in a believable manner. From his mother's beginning to form new relationships and Eddie's own need to carve out to make or get by cutting, or as if by cutting; to cut out.
- Shak.

See also: Carve
 a new life for himself Bateman presents each new theme in manner that kids in the target audience can understand. The struggle Eddie faces in having is whole life disrupted is something kids facing the same situation can identify with, and chuckle along with Eddie as he struggles to make sense of things he cannot control.

Good book for the school, home school, and home library. The work will fit as nicely in a unit on facing life as it will for pleasure reading. Therapists will find use for the book in helping youthful clients who may be facing many of the situations as is Eddie following a divorce and the need to move and leave behind the comfortable life they have known. Parental affair, divorce and the need for finding friends and learning a whole new set of rules and discipline for life are presented in easily read fashion.

The setting for the book is England, and some of the language used will have an English flavor which kids will find intriguing.

Enjoyed the read, happy to recommend.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Midwest Book Review
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2005, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Reviewer's Bookwatch
Article Type:Book Review
Date:Apr 1, 2005
Words:564
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