Joseph Helgerson

Our hero, 12-year-old Zeb, is a Tom Sawyer-ish character who's sent far from his woodsy home to work for his Great Uncle in St. Louis. Only he never sees his uncle. Instead, he's recruited mid-trip by a gambler named Chilly who leads him down a path that just gets farther and farther from what Zeb was expecting. He makes friends with a slave named Ho-John, an Indian chief and his daughter (she doesn't have a name, but is just called "the princess"). The story is mostly driven by Zeb's moral development, but there's also a little suspense thrown in when Zeb realizes he's had enough of being Chilly's lackey.

This wasn't poorly written, but I found the voice of Zeb a little cloying. I think the author depended too much on colloquialisms and didn't really put that much into fleshing out his characters or his story. Was it just me or did every character fit pretty neatly into a cultural stereotype?

I did appreciate the afterword that spoke to the historical accuracy of the story, and the glossary that was provided to enlighten confused young readers.… (mere)

This was such a strange middle grade book. It was sci-fi, fantasy with animal characters.

The woodland animals have jsut found a Galumpus in the creek area of the park and he seems lost, telling them that his home is gone. They find out that he is actually a Wooly Mammoth from the past that has suddenly appeared in the park. Gilly the Possum is trying to help him while Mayer Crawdaddy is mostly scared of all things and says they should leave him be. Gilly tried to get human help by way of a little girl that she has befriended, but then a robot from the future also shows up in the form of the Forest Fire Prevention bear... but green. She is part of the time travel too, the mammoth and the robot were both part of a time-rift and have arrived in the park.

It was all so strange and off-the-wall that it was hard to follow. I thin kthat younger readers might like the concept but also have a lot of questions about why and how, but also what is doing on. It also reads a little like it is a series, although it is not, where the you just jump in and there is little explanation about the characters and their world. The craziness of it all kinda of takes away from that confusion because there is a lot of other wierd stuff that happens. That said, I found it hard to stay focused during my reading. It was fun, but hard to follow. I wanted more explanation, and less jumping around... there was a lot of movement through the town and park withouth much description.… (mere)