When thirteen-year-old Tendai's parents discover that he and his younger sister and brother are missing from their family's high-security compound in the dangerous world of Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2194, they quickly hire the Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, endearing detectives with paranormal abilities but dubious investigative skills. The tension builds as the children are kidnapped, escape, and are recaptured numerous times. Farmer has created not only an intriguing, complex futuristic society but also a cast of characters that will capture the heart of any reader.

Picking up where she left off in her highly successful debut, Do You Know Me, Farmer uses her knowledge of Africa to imagine a city in 23rd-century Zimbabwe, combining old traditions and speculative technology with delightfully entertaining results. In search of adventure, 13-year-old Tendai, his sister Rita and younger brother Kuda, the sheltered offspring of a maniacally rigid military general, break out of the family compound. The three are promptly kidnapped by the monstrous She Elephant, an ogre who lords over an abandoned toxic waste dump and forces its denizens to mine obsolete plastic products. They finally escape, but are captured anew and imprisoned in Resthaven, a cloistered community where the ancient African spiritual and farming traditions are practiced to the exclusion of all things modern. Meanwhile, the beleaguered general hires the Ear, the Eye and the Arm, three decidedly odd detectives who take advantage of their hyperdeveloped senses and features (the result of a nuclear accident) to track down the children. The madcap game of chase and escape clips along as the author plies her playful, sly sense of humor on a wonderfully silly cast of secondary characters, spirits and Jetsonian gadgets. This tale overflows with wise insights, lessons and observations about the ties between heritage and family. Farmer is emerging as one of the best and brightest authors for the YA audience. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

Even readers who don't like sf will be drawn to a hero who has a sense of humor about his serious mission. In Zimbabwe in the year 2194, the military ruler's 13-year-old son and his younger brother and sister leave their technologically overcontrolled home and find themselves on a series of perilous adventures. Tendai and his siblings encounter mile-high buildings and other miracles of scientific advance; they also find fetid slums and toxic waste dumps. As they're kidnapped by gangsters, forced to slave in a plastic mine, and accused of witchcraft, they're pursued by mutant detectives, who are both bumbling and sensitive and who always seem to be just one step behind rescuing the children. In the best section, the siblings find themselves in a traditional Shona village that at first seems idyllic but turns out to also encompass fierce sexism, ignorance, and disease. Throughout the story, it's the thrilling adventure that will grab readers, who will also like the comic, tender characterizations, not only of the brave, defiant trio and the absurd detectives, but also of nearly every one the kids meet, from street gangsters and spiritual healers to the English tribespeople with their weird customs. Tendai's spiritual coming-of-age is the least interesting part of the novel, but teens will like this teenager with a hot line to the spirit world. (Reviewed Apr. 1, 1994)

An author who lived for years in Africa follows a comic, well-received first novel set in present-day Mozambique (Do You Know Me, 1993) with this marvelous odyssey across Zimbabwe 200 years in the future. Tendai, 13, his sister Rita, and their little brother Kuda escape their luxurious home to explore their perilous city; Tendai's immediate aim is earning a scouting badge, but his need to prove himself—as his protective father, Chief of Security Masika, hasn't allowed him to do—is also compelling. Exploring seamy Cow's Guts,'' these innocents are snapped up by the vastShe Elephant'' who presides over the mines in Dead Man's Vlei, where society's dregs scavenge toxic waste for now-rare plastics. Escaping, they find their way to the walled enclave of Resthaven, where traditional tribal ways are preserved, bad with good (``You can't yank out part of the pattern and not damage the rest''); and then to a treacherous old Englishwoman. Meanwhile, the three are tracked by three eponymous detectives, whose folkloric talents are ascribed to the effects of a toxic environment. Weaving African tribal language and lore (notes and glossary appended) into a rich tapestry featuring a witty projection of the future, a score of vividly realized characters, and a nonstop adventure culminating in a denouement that's at once taut, comic, and touching, Farmer has created a splendidly imaginative fantasy, just right to pair with Lowry's darker vision of control and freedom (The Giver, 1993). (Fiction. 10+)"