Gemini Summer (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Gemini Summer Elizabeth Bush Lawrence, Iain Gemini Summer. Delacorte, 2006 [224p] Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90111-9$17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73089-6$15.95 eviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Danny River is a pretty happy little kid with attentive parents and a space-travel-obsessed older brother, Beau, who actually likes him; most of his troubles are of a garden variety—the mentally disabled kid (nicknamed "Dopey") up the road is a bully, and Danny really wants a dog. His relatively calm life takes a precipitous turn, though, as the Vietnam War escalates and his father starts to dig out a bomb shelter. While the boys are playing by the pit, Beau falls in and is fatally impaled on a shaft of rebar, an accident in which Dopey may or may not be implicated. Just as the grieving family hits its emotional nadir, a dog trots into Danny's life. Hoping to boost Danny's spirits, the Rivers allow this dog to stay, and soon the dog's peculiar behavior convinces Danny that this is Beau, reincarnated as affectionate mutt Rocket. Indeed, Rocket seems to be so uncannily attuned to each family member's emotional needs and habits that Danny cannot understand why his parents don't accept what is so obvious to him. When Rocket bites Dopey in a scuffle, authorities come to take the dog and destroy it, but Rocket escapes and he and Danny hit the road to try to find help from a most unlikely source. As he did in Lord of the Nutcracker Men (BCCB 10/01) and B for Buster (BCCB 9/04), Lawrence skillfully dances on the tightrope between realism and fantasy, creating in Rocket a fully realized character that is convincingly human and unmistakably doggy, and baffling readers as to exactly who is in their right mind here—Danny or the Rivers. Dog-story lovers, mystery fans, and thriller devotees should be equally satisfied, and that takes in just about everyone, doesn't it? Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois