Smith, Gordon. The forest in the hallway.SMITH, Gordon. The forest in the hallway. Houghton Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational publisher in the United States. The company's headquarters is located in Boston's Back Bay. It publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers , Clarion. 240p. c2006. 0-618-68847-1. $16.00. JS* When 14-year-old Beatriz's parents disappear without a single clue as to where they are, Beatriz goes to live with her uncle in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . Beatriz likes her uncle, but she feels shy around him and generally avoids him. She ventures from her room to explore the apartment when he leaves, and one day, a face pops out of the woodwork and invites her to the 19th floor. Beatriz has already noticed that there is something odd about the building: insects woven into the carpet pattern appear to move. So she isn't very surprised when the hallway on the 19th floor stretches on and on and becomes a path through a forest. Starting with an encounter with a rather genial genial /ge·ni·al/ (je-ni´al) mental (2). ge·ni·al or ge·ni·an adj. Of or relating to the chin. genial pertaining to the chin. Death, Beatriz enters a strange and lovely land. She stays in an inn called The Library, run by a Mr. Borges, travels upriver with Rose, a sturdy no-nonsense woman with dragonfly dragonfly, any insect of the order Odonata, which also includes the damselfly. Members of this order are generally large predatory insects and characteristically have chewing mouthparts and four membranous, net-veined wings; they undergo complete metamorphosis. wings, and two winged children named Pyramus and Thisbe Pyramus and Thisbe (pĭr`əməs, thĭz`bē), in classical mythology, youth and maiden of Babylon, whose parents opposed their marriage. Their homes adjoined, and they conversed through a crevice in the dividing wall. , and meets a host of other characters. Some are friendly, some are menacing, and some are mysterious. With every encounter, Beatriz gets closer to solving the puzzle. Smith's prose is so vivid and evocative that one might believe that the book is illustrated. He weaves humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was and literary allusions smoothly into his narrative, and while understanding the allusions is not necessary to appreciate the story, they do add another dimension to the plot for those who get them. Beatriz's quest is purposeful; Smith's plot is tight and compelling. In a refreshing departure from most fantasy quests, Smith touches on the realities of traveling without benefit of a shower, washing machine (storage) washing machine - An old-style 14-inch hard disk in a floor-standing cabinet. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the "top-loading" access to the media packs - and, of course, they were always set on "spin cycle". or extra underwear. Beatriz is a splendid character. She is smart, resourceful, a little stubborn and single-minded. Beatriz is believable and retains the reader's sympathy. The ensemble of other characters is equally interesting and well developed, and Smith's engaging debut is a delight from start to finish. Donna Scanlon, Libn., County Lib., Lancaster, PA J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers. S--Recommended for senior high school students. *--The asterisk highlights exceptional books. |
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