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| Publisher's Hardcover ©2007 | -- |
| Paperback ©2016 | -- |
Missing persons. Juvenile fiction.
Journalists. Juvenile fiction.
Vodou. Juvenile fiction.
Slavery. Juvenile fiction.
Soccer stories.
Missing persons. Fiction.
Journalists. Fiction.
Vodou. Fiction.
Slavery. Fiction.
Soccer. Fiction.
South America. Juvenile fiction.
South America. History. To 1806. Juvenile fiction.
South America. Fiction.
South America. History. To 1806. Fiction.
This companion novel to Keeper (2005) picks up the story of South American sports journalist Paul Faustino, who is drawn into a wild, esoteric mystery after a young soccer prodigy disappears. Although Peet's decision to set the story in a generalized fictional South American country may spark controversy, once again, he tells a fascinating, complex tale that incorporates sports, the occult, and South American history and culture. "For me time is folded, like cloth," says one character, and the same is true of Peet's experimental narrative, which leaps between Faustino's contemporary viewpoint and the historical voice of an African man who survived the Middle Passage and the graphic brutality of slave life. Jerky transitions between story lines and some clichéd language distract from the frequent lyricism, vivid magic, and rich, unsettling themes. The surface mystery will intrigue readers, but it's the deeper questions about religious belief, salvation, and how best to confront the past's shocking inhumanity that will linger. For another novel that blends twentieth-century life with African history and voodoo, suggest Susan Vaught's Stormwitch (2005).
Horn Book (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)Tomecek includes a great deal of basic information about the moon in straightforward explanations understandable to young children. He starts with observations and myths, then moves to scientific explanations for craters, moon surface conditions, and earth-moon-sun spatial relationships. The colorful cartoonlike illustrations, featuring a friendly cat and firefly, are appealing but do little to aid in scientific understanding.
Kirkus ReviewsMore Latin-American magic realism from Carnegie winner Peet. Billed as a companion to The Keeper (2005) and featuring some of the same characters, this can be read independently and tackles deeper emotional territory. When teen soccer star El Brujito disappears, sports reporter Paul Faustino finds himself drawn in to the mystery against his better judgment. A second narrative concerns the life of a slave who became a priest of Veneration (a compelling but imaginary ancestor worship faith); the two threads come together seamlessly in the climactic showdown. El Brujito's disappearance is steeped in real-world corruption as well as the supernatural, providing a deft balance. Peet's language is beautiful and assured, with flashes of sardonic humor from Faustino as well as a sense of poignancy and heartbreak in the first-person slave narrative. The lack of YA perspective may initially deter some readers, but Faustino's journey from skepticism to reluctant belief provides a genuine access point, and any reader who starts this astounding novel will be hard-pressed to put it down. Stunning, original and compelling. (Fiction. YA)
School Library Journal (Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)Gr 10 Up-Eighteen-year-old Ricardo Gomes de Barros's extraordinary soccer skills have garnered him fame, but his disappearance after a critical game leads sportswriter Paul Faustino to investigate. When Faustino asks too many questions, he is kidnapped and taken into the rural countryside where Barros grew up; there he learns of the ancestor worship and "Veneration" that the displaced slaves brought with them to the New World. The narrative is divided between Paracleto, a Loma slave of the 1700s who has come to be thought of as a god, and Faustino. Peet uses Paracleto's voice to expound some vital information, but the divided narrative detracts from the modern-day mystery and reduces the cohesiveness of the work as a whole. The lack of background information leaves questions about ancestor worship and other religious traditions among displaced Africans. Similar to Tamora Pierce's "Immortals" quartet (S & S), Peet's god characters appear, provide cryptic insight, and fade back out; however, they are the most interesting characters in the book. The way in which Faustino eventually discovers Barros reduces the mysterious element of the story to a mere side note in the plot, which had previously suffered from a lack of suspense. Between the disjointed narrative and unappealing characters, this novel will have difficulty attracting readers, and should be a strictly supplemental purchase. Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library
Voice of Youth AdvocatesPaul Faustino, South America's top soccer reporter, returns in this companion novel to Keeper (Candlewick, 2005/VOYA December 2005). Faustino is drawn into the mysterious disappearance of soccer star El Brujito (the Little Magician), who vanishes after missing a crucial penalty kick for his team. As Faustino investigates, he finds that the mystery not only involves police corruption and murder but also a strong link to the occult and the harsh legacy of slavery. During his adventure, Faustino meets the intriguing character of Bakula, a tour guide who is much more than he seems. The reader learns a great deal about the history of slavery through Bakula and finds that Bakula is strongly tied to that history himself as past meets present at book's end. This novel combines sports with the genres of historical fiction and mystery, but the soccer only provides a background for the mystery and nothing more. Fans expecting sports fiction that parallels the writing style of someone such as Mike Lupica will be disappointed. The mystery is intriguing yet easily solvable. The novel starts strongly, and the interwoven historical depictions of South American slavery are vivid and disturbing, but the book ultimately sputters as it approaches its conclusion. Although it is referenced several times, readers need not have read Keeper before reading this book. Purchase this one if the first book is popular in your library or if you are looking to add an alternative form of sports fiction.-David Goodale.
ALA Booklist (Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)
Horn Book (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)
Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal (Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)
Voice of Youth Advocates
You would think the boy is alone, but he is not. Facing him is the Brazilian defense. That plastic beer crate is Michel. The little heap of stones is Luisao, who today is holding the center. The almost-leafless sapling that grows magically out of nothing is the magisterial Cafu. The ancient bicycle frame propped up with bricks is Maicon, whose ferocious tackling is legendary. Beyond them, between the two thin timbers the boy has somehow uprighted in the hard earth, lurks the goalkeeper, Rubinho. He will be substituted for Cesar at halftime, but that will make no difference. The boy knows he can beat them both. He can drive the ball in a powerful curve that will take it a finger’s breadth inside the post. He can send in a long-distance shot that seems destined to fly over the invisible bar but that will dip horribly at the last possible moment. He can do these things, and more, but often does not bother. He is less interested in the final shot than in the move that leads up to it. In the beauty of the move, in its speed and complexity.
And the boy is not alone, because -- as always -- his head is full of spirits with whom he talks and in whom he confides.
Nor is he lonely. He practices in solitude because the other boys are not as good as he is. Their failure to understand what he intends to do frustrates him. They are slow to read the game. They fail to predict what the Brazilians will do. And they are not serious. They want only to score goals so that they can celebrate with their ridiculous gymnastics, reveling in the silent roar of eighty thousand imaginary spectators.
The ball the boy bounces from knee to knee is old, cheap, and scuffed. In places the plastic coating is peeling away. He knows that soon, somehow, he will have to get another one. But in the meantime, the sad condition of the ball makes the game a little more unpredictable, and he likes that.
The boy’s field is a large patch of bare, uneven ground where once, long ago, a church stood. He has set up the goal where the altar used to be, although he does not know this. Since the destruction of the church, nothing has been built here because the place is considered unlucky. He is aware of this, feels the wrongness that lingers in the air, but he welcomes it because bad luck is part of any game. It is something else to test himself against.
He catches the ball on his instep, holds it there for five seconds, and begins another attack. After a burst of extremely sudden acceleration that takes Michel by surprise, he plays a one-two with a low chunk of broken masonry, the stump of a wall. The return pass is perfectly weighted; it evades Luisao’s desperate attempt at interception, and the ball drops into a space that Michel will not reach in time. The boy takes it on the outside of his right foot and sets off on a direct run toward the center of the penalty area, and, as he had intended, the Brazilians funnel in toward the goal, their eyes on the ball. But he does not continue the run. Instead he brakes, comes to a dead stop. The ball is, tantalizingly, a pace in front of his right foot; it tempts Maicon, who closes in, his face almost blank with determination. And the boy, with outrageous insolence, plays it through the defender’s legs. There is only just enough room between the V of the bicycle frame and its crossbar for the ball to pass through -- but it does pass through and runs out wide to where the boy’s fullback is making an overlapping run. When the pass comes in, it is sweetly hit, with some inswing, and the boy meets it with his head.
Or he would have.
His name is Ricardo Gomes de Barros, and he is fourteen years old. His aunt, with whom he lives -- he has no parents, although he sometimes hears their voices in his head -- calls him Rico. So does his sister. The other kids, the ones who call him anything at all, call him El Brujito. The Little Magician. T
Excerpted from The Penalty by Mal Peet
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
From the award-winning author of Tamar, a time-shifting thriller about a vanishing soccer star, occult secrets, and the dark history of slavery.
As the city of San Juan pulses to summer’s sluggish beat, its teenage soccer prodigy, El Brujito, the Little Magician, vanishes without a trace — right after he misses a penalty kick and loses a big game for his team. Paul Faustino, South America’s top sports reporter, is reluctantly drawn into the mystery of the athlete’s disappearance. As a story of corruption and murder unfolds, Faustino is forced to confront the bitter history of slavery and the power of the occult. A deftly woven mystery flush with soccer and suspense, this gripping novel is a thrilling read not to be missed.