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CM . . .
. Volume XVI Number 40. . . .June 18, 2010
excerpt:
Mike Keats is down to his last chance. The 17-year-old’s explosive temper has caused him to be traded three times in as many years. He can thank his former billet, John Hummel, for his not being expelled from the hockey league altogether. Now he’s hoping that a standout year with the Seattle Thunderbirds will open up a career in the National Hockey League. Mike’s new friend, Dakota, can always keep his cool, and he is teaching Mike how to as well. But mysterious and increasingly violent acts of racial hatred aimed at Métis Dakota soon draw Mike into danger as well. First, Dakota’s truck is shot at, then masked invaders with baseball bats try to break into his home, bomb threats are made during their hockey game, and then Dakota himself vanishes! An audiocassette (the sole indication that the novel was written 14 years ago) that Dakota has left with his sister, Kendra, reveals his involvement with a fringe group of terrorists who are plotting to blow up a dam. She and Mike race northward to rescue Dakota, traveling over the Canadian border and into the mountains to the town of Lillooet, BC. After a chase along the highway, the two are captured by the terrorists, tied up, and thrown into an underground bunker where they are reunited with Dakota. With mere hours until they are to be killed, Mike finds himself able to open up to his new friends about his troubled past; his mother’s death, his subsequent emotional abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father, and the theft charges that had driven him out of Saskatoon. Mike has learned much from both Dakota and John Hummmel, and the choice he makes during the novel’s thrilling conclusion, which will keep readers on the edge of their seats, illustrates a boy’s transition to manhood. The hockey action is an effective counterpoint to the main mystery, but Brouwer doesn’t stop there. He smoothly incorporates additional subplots: a background mystery involving Mike and the theft of a carload of fur coats; two compelling and transforming relationships between Mike and Dakota, and Mike and John Hummel; and a budding romance between Mike and Dakota’s sister Kendra. Throughout the novel, Mike’s attitudes and actions reflect his developing maturity, the result of these experiences. Thunderbird Spirit is the third book in the “Orca Sports: Lightning on Ice” series and was originally published in 1996. The “Orca Sports” series produces high-interest, limited-vocabulary stories written in linear format, with a first-person narrative, for young readers. Thunderbird Spirit is well-written, and the highly engaging secondary characters, especially Dakota Smith, will quickly draw readers into the story. In Mike Keats, Brouwer has created a well-rounded male protagonist, a young man desperately searching for a good role model during the difficult period between boyhood and manhood. Highly Recommended. Thunderbird Spirit is the third book in the “Orca Sports: Lightning on Ice” series and was originally published in 1996. The “Orca Sports” series produces high-interest, limited-vocabulary stories written in linear format, with a first-person narrative, for young readers. Thunderbird Spirit is well-written, and the highly engaging secondary characters, especially Dakota Smith, will quickly draw readers into the story. In Mike Keats, Brouwer has created a well-rounded male protagonist, a young man desperately searching for a good role model during the difficult period between boyhood and manhood.
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