|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
School psychologist Skye Denison is back in another delightful and intriguing escapade. She is counseling a difficult student when a girl runs into her minuscule office crying, „Sleeping Beauty is dead.¾ Well, that would get my attention all right. Skye runs to the gym which is also the theater and finds the body of the cheerleader who is playing Sleeping Beauty dead on the set. Not only does this tantalize Skye who is a natural born snoop but there are also implications for the school. Are parents going to worry about the safety of their children? Are they safe? Was the school involved in the death. Her „uncle¾ Charlie, president of the School Board, asks her to look into the murder at the same time the chief of police is telling her to butt out. The characters in this series are simply delightful and enjoyable to know (those who aren¼t annoying and infuriating). Even after closing the book and going about some other business, I still seem to be listening to Skye¼s voice in my ear. She is a good school psychologist and knows what to do in a crisis, but she is also frustrated with her love life and with her parents¼ refusal to see her as grown up. She would like to be living away from Scumble River, but that is impossible right now. She is simply a very enjoyable person to know. Most of the other characters are not so strong and tend to be foils for Skye, but Ms. Swanson creates two believable and credible adolescents. Another element that I really like is the setting. Ms. Swanson catches small town life and skewers it like a butterfly. In a gentle way all the problems and frustrations of being known by all your neighbors are made quite graphic. And the school setting is especially believable. As one who spent a career in a high school, albeit one considerably larger than Scumble River¼s, I can say she has the politics, the administrative bumbling, the red tape, and the students who make it all worthwhile just exactly right. The book contains a gentle humor, not one that mocks or derides, but one that allows Skye and by extension the rest of us to laugh at ourselves. It is not the slip and fall on a banana skin, but the humor that grows out of situations and characters. The scene in the mortuary is worth reading the book for. No one can get herself in more ridiculous situations than Skye, it sometimes seems. And the reader chuckles along. On a more serious note we get an inside look at children¼s beauty contests and pageants and they are not a pretty sight. We see the ugliness, the backbiting, the nastiness that infest them. This series serves as comfort reads for me. When life is most frustrating, i like to visit Scumble River and see what is happening there. The only frustration now is that I will have to wait more than a year for my next visit. When this book reaches your local bookseller, do yourself a favor and buy it.
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, January 2002
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
