Burning City

June 6, 2005
Heller Highland, 16, works at "Soft Tidings," an unlikely Manhattan company that delivers "news with a personal touch." Uncommon empathy makes him the firm's choice to deliver the worst news—a capsized boat off the Albanian coast had your wife and children aboard, a son has died in a Chinese re-education camp, a sweetheart in Istanbul has married another. Heller is a sad sack himself, pining for Silvia, a waitress whose eyes "made (him) want to crawl inside her soul." He's an outcast at work—the lone cyclist on a rollerblading staff. His two-wheeled dreams extend to entering the Tour de France, hoping to become its youngest champion ever. To that end, he employs many don't-try-this-at-home moves that will thrill teen readers—hitching himself to a moving car, tilting sideways under a truck parked in his path, hurtling over a construction site. The plot paints New York City as a very small town where the same few characters turn up everywhere and just when Heller needs them, but the father-son Dorfmans (both playwrights) do evoke the city's ethnic richness. Heller's kindness to strangers would be more credible if he didn't treat his grandparents, with whom he lives while his parents are on an unspecified do-gooder mission, with such disdain, and his voice often sounds too wise. Still, his derring-do on a bike will entice some readers, and the portrait of New York just before September 11 will draw others. Ages 12-up.

January 1, 2006
Gr 9 Up -Heller is a philosophical 16-year-old bike messenger, and it's a good thing, because he is always tapped to deliver bad news. His company, Soft Tidings, believes in a personal touch, and their messengers communicate verbally. Though Heller is their youngest employee, he's best at providing comfort and peace along with painful tidings. He is less successful in his personal life; an unrequited crush on Silvia leads him to seek advice from a rich cast of characters. Salim Adasi, one of the teen's customers, provides some guidance and insight, though the man's status as an illegal immigrant makes him a target of Bruno the Bruiser, an over-the-top New York City cop. When Heller receives a sad message of his own, his philosophy and attitude are put to the test. The authors' descriptions of summer in Manhattan are flawless; the city seethes as Heller surges through its streets like an electron, connecting people and lives in complicated ways. His bicycle athletics make for flashy, exciting reading. With just a few lines of description or a quick dialogue, the authors provide the secondary characters with background and texture. Heller's own situation at home with his grandparents, by contrast, is a bit underdeveloped. His shyness with Silvia, along with the messages he delivers, contributes a hint of plot to this dreamy, episodic novel. It's the characters, their conversations, and histories that will draw in older, thoughtful teens." -Sarah Couri, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2005
Gr. 10-12. Sixteen-year-old Heller spends the summer cycling through New York City as a delivery boy for Soft Tidings, a messenger service that provides "news with a personal touch." Heller is an ambitious cyclist, a gifted bearer of the worst sorts of news, and a typical teenage boy. His goals are clear: he wants to win the Tour de France, to help people cope with the news he delivers, and to get noticed by Sylvia, a girl who works at his local coffee shop. Heller's compassionate deliveries introduce him to a colorful cast of urban characters, including Salim, a Turkish illegal. Through his deepening friendship with Salim and a painful breakthrough with Sylvia, Heller comes of age. The Dorfmans (father and son playwrights) are deft writers, smoothly intertwining characters and events in a highly imaginative, intriguing, and almost dreamlike story. This sophisticated and unusual book is rich in the symbolism of Troy and that great city's burning. Although perhaps not accessible to all readers, it's nonetheless a uniquely worthy addition to libraries serving older teens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)