Lionboy FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
A mother-daughter team, writing under the name Zizou Corder, leaps out of the literary jungle with this rip-roaring adventure about a Cat-speaking boy and his mission to rescue his kidnapped parents.
Loaded with fascinating characters and sci-fi suspense that carries the reader to a cliff-hanger ending, Corder's novel centers on Charlie Ashanti, a British lad who's gained the ability to talk Cat through a previous mishap with a leopard. When Charlie learns that his scientist parents have been taken by The Corporacy -- an organization that apparently wants to use the Ashantis' knowledge of allergy medications for profit -- he sets out to save them. Fortunately, Charlie's special feline skills land him a job helping a lion trainer in a traveling circus, and he befriends the troupe's lions en route to Paris. But Charlie's not without personal dangers of his own: a knife-wielding enemy named Rafi is in pursuit, and the circus's lion trainer, Maccomo, has plans of his own for the poor boy.
Hitting similar high notes to the Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl books, Corder serves up a smash hit and keeps fans purring for more. The book's added messages about the environment and multiracial families bring new dimensions to the story, giving readers something more to take away with them. A solid book you won't want to pass up.
Matt Warner
ANNOTATION
In the near future, a boy with the ability to speak the language of cats sets out from London to seek his kidnapped parents and finds himself on a Paris-bound circus ship learning to train lions.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
What do you do when you come home one day and discover that your parents have been kidnapped? Well, if you're a brave young guy named Charlie Ashanti, you go off in search of them. And since you happen to know how to speak Cat, your feline friends -- the stray cats of the city and the caged lions on a magnificent, astounding floating circus -- rally around you, bringing help, advice, and occasional special deliveries. Little do you know that in this search of yours, the fate of the world is at stake.
From an exciting new mother/daughter writing team comes this captivating adventure full of heroes, villains, and astounding events. Set in a near future that blends the familiar and the new in unexpected, intriguing ways, Lionboy is an exhilarating, suspenseful whirlwind of a novel -- a book destined to become a classic.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
This first volume (by a mother-daughter team writing under one name) in a planned trilogy melds a rousing traveling circus adventure with shades of cautionary science fiction. The near-future setting serves only to explain the absence of cars and the presence of the debilitating allergies they have caused. Otherwise, the story feels 21st-century in nearly every respect. Charlie's parents, both scientists, disappear from their home in Britain, and Charlie suspects foul play. Through flashbacks, readers learn that Charlie can communicate with cats (while he was in the jungle with his father as a toddler, Charlie's blood commingled with that of a leopard cub). Through a network of cats (who feel indebted to Charlie's parents for reasons that become clear later in the novel), Charlie is able to track the scientists, who have been kidnapped by a nebulous organization called The Corporacy. His journey to rescue them makes for a page-turning read, as he becomes the helper to a lion trainer on a circus boat bound for Paris. The ending may leave readers in a lurch, but the idea introduced toward the conclusion-that a company's best interests may not be in the cure to a disease (allergies), but rather in the profits to be made from the sale of its remedies-provides much food for thought, and fodder for future installments. Corder's most profound metaphor might be Charlie's slick analogy: that those employed by a corporation are not so different from the beautiful lions trapped in cages, held captive to "perform tricks they don't want to perform, to hand over their specialness and their skills." Ages 8-up. (Dec.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
VOYA - David Goodale
This first book in a planned trilogy is set in a near future where pollution from automobiles has driven people out of the cities and into new Communities. Corder wastes no time in beginning the adventure, as young Charlie Ashanti sets out to rescue his kidnapped parents. Charlie is aided in his quest by his ability to communicate with felines, something he has been able to do ever since being scratched by a leopard as a baby. The stray cats of London direct Charlie to France, and on the way, he hitches a ride with the Major and his circus aboard the steam ship Circe. Charlie eventually frees the circus lions, and they accompany him as he continues his search. Corder definitely writes a Harry Potter read-alike. This novel was first published in the U.K., and the comparison between Corder and Rowling creates a much-anticipated book. This fast-paced, original adventure will be devoured by Rowling fans, but some of the characters leave something to be desired. Charlie seems to take the abduction of his parents a little too much in stride, and his parent's do not seem worried at all that they have been kidnapped. Despite flaws in characterization, this novel will also be a hit with lovers of Eoin Colfer and Philip Pullman. This series is recommended for school and public libraries, where patrons will also want to keep an eye out for the movie. Buy extra copies if the movie turns out to be a hit. VOYA CODES: 3Q 4P M J (Readable without serious defects; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2004 (orig. 2003), Dial, 288p., Ages 11 to 15.
KLIATT - Paula Rohrlick
In a future world in which fuel for cars or planes is rare (though cell phones abound), a boy named Charlie lives happily in London with his British mother and West African father, both scientists. Then one day he returns home to find them inexplicably gone. A slimy teenager named Rafi tries to convince him that they have headed off on a trip, and tries to take Charlie away with him. Intrepid Charlie, used to thinking for himself, realizes that his parents have been kidnapped because they hold the key to a major medical breakthrough. He has the rare gift of being able to communicate with felines, and the local cats tell him that his parents have "gorn down toward the sea." Charlie escapes from Rafi's clutches and heads off to find his parents, joining up with a magnificent circus ship. He becomes the lionboy for this circus, communicating with these proud but imprisoned animals, and helps them escape the circus once they reach Paris. Charlie then manages to smuggle the lions and himself onto the Orient Express, enlisting the help of the King of Bulgaria, in hopes of setting them free in Morocco and rescuing his parents. This British fantasy, the first tale in a projected trilogy, has the feel of an elaborate bedtime story, which might have been its origin; "Zizou Corder" is really writer Louisa Young and her young daughter Isabel. The saga is imaginative and engaging, and the elaborate details of the circus will appeal to upper elementary and middle school students. The title and cover close-up of a lion's head will help to draw them in. KLIATT Codes: J-Recommended for junior high school students. 2003, Penguin Putnam, Dial, 288p., Ages 12 to 15.
School Library Journal
Gr 4-8-Charlie, a boy who communicates with felines, uses his ability as he sets off to rescue his kidnapped parents. He joins a floating circus that happens to be headed in the right direction, and teams up with some lions, planning their escape in return for their help with his quest. The boy's enemies include a teenage thug who's been hired to catch him and a jealous lion trainer who wants to use Charlie to further his own career. Numerous plot twists and shifts in setting keep things moving briskly, but unevenly. Charlie's flight with the lions to a Paris train station is suspenseful, for example, but his rescue by the King of Bulgaria is too contrived to be involving. The large cast of supporting characters also brings mixed results, ranging from several unmemorable villains to some fairly interesting cats. Charlie himself is brave and smart, regularly applying his parents' wise advice when in a tough spot, but he never comes alive as a truly distinct or particularly interesting hero. His knowledge of cat speech makes an intriguing plot device, but that skill doesn't seem to influence his personality or thought process much. Still, it's a fascinating premise, and sets up some surprising and exciting situations. The book concludes mid-adventure, with Charlie still on the way to rescue his parents. In an unconvincing wrap-up, he decides that they must certainly be safe for now and suddenly gains confidence that he will succeed. Despite weaknesses, there's some inventive storytelling here, and readers who stick with it will look forward to the sequel.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Panicked, Charlie sets off to find his kidnapped scientist parents in this adventurous romp set in a future England when pollution has banned cars, closed schools, and created an asthma epidemic. A network of cats enables Charlie, who speaks Cat, to stow away on a river police launch, hook up with a floating circus on a ship bound for Paris, help six lions escape captivity, via the city's canals, and board a train for Venice, where he thinks his black father and white mother are being held. The tension builds like Christie's Orient Express, as a snow avalanche stalls the train and King Boris of Bulgaria stymies the villains chasing the lions and Charlie. Abrupt as a TV thriller that flashes "To Be Continued," this first in a trilogy screeches to a halt at a cliff-hanging moment, with those very words. This inventive cat-and-mouse game combines hi-jinks with messages of mixed marriages, greedy pharmaceutical conglomerates, and environmentally caused allergies. The lion-face cover and clever cat device set the pace and impel the plot. Intriguing. (Fiction. 9-12)
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