All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky

August 1, 2011

Three orphans with nothing to lose embark on a road trip that reaches epic proportions.

Initially, readers find Jack grappling with the loss of his parents, who have succumbed to the ravages of the Dust Bowl. Lansdale quickly shifts to a light, folksy tone as Jack meets up with Jane and her younger brother, Tony. Jane wants to "look around first, learn a little about life" before becoming a journalist. So why not set out on a real quest? Together they steal a car from a dead man but are soon kidnapped by bank-robbing gangsters. After overhearing the men's intention to kill an accomplice named Strangler, Jane convinces the boys that warning him would be the noble thing to do. Jack and Tony go along on the strength of Jane's prowess as a storyteller—or liar, as some would have it. This "Jack tale" is really Jane's story; Jack is little more than the chronicler of an episodic adventure that stretches credulity as the trio heads across East Texas. Jane's stories get them in and out of jams as they ride the rails with hoboes, are befriended by the likes of Pretty Boy Floyd and are hoodwinked into forced labor by a corrupt sheriff, before reaching a carnival, where the action culminates in a scene of comic violence.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

Gr 6-9-Jack buries his parents in the barn during a Depression-era Oklahoma dust storm. Mama succumbed to dirty pneumonia and his father, overcome by grief, has hung himself. Jack's spunky neighbor Jane and her younger brother, Tony, also recently orphaned, stumble in from a dust storm that buried their father. The three steal a Ford and set out to seek the siblings' aunt and uncle in East Texas. The body count rises as they encounter gangsters, railyard bulls, and a crooked sheriff on one hand and kindly folks such as Pretty Boy Floyd, Mrs. Carson, Junior, and carnival performers on the other. A plague of grasshoppers, an alligator, and even the local police (conveniently) play their parts in this tale that balances the bleak bits with Jane's smart banter, a warm first (and second and third) kiss, and an ending that leaves Jack hopeful for a brighter tomorrow. Despite the convenient plot devices, this is a fast-paced, exciting story in which historical details are smoothly incorporated, characters are quickly but effectively sketched, and the author's Twain-like twang delivers both ironic and situational humor that will leave readers chuckling.-Joel Shoemaker, formerly at South East Junior High School, Iowa City, IA

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