Summerland

Rating:
Summary: Summerland
Review: A great book about the four different worlds: Summerland,The Middling (where we live), Winterland and the Spirit World which Coyote has sealed off.Our hero has to stop Coyote from killing the tree,which supports the four worlds.You have to read this book!

Rating:
Summary: I loved it, but...
Review: I originally saw this book featured in Child magazine which gave the book considerable praise but warned that it was best for children 12 and up. I then saw the book at a local elementary school book fair and deicded to pick it up (and donate proceeds to the school in the process.)

I began reading this book well before I gave it to my sister as her birthday present. In general, as in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon writes beautifully, with vivid imagery and great narration. However, the more I read the book, the more I realized that my sister would never have understood it. The story is obviously aimed at children, in a simple heroic adventure kind of style, but his rich use of vocabulary and his well-timed transitions between scenes don't seem like things that an average adolescent would be able to pick up on and appreciate.

I loved the book because I like the way Chabon writes, but I have to admit that there some words that even I had to look up in the dictionary, and I'd like to think I'm a lot more litereate than a 12 year old. I don't think that this was such a great gift idea to my sister - who was put off by the baseball theme early on in the first chapter.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful tale, but probably not a child's book
Review: Chabon has done it again with "Summerland", a fantastic tale chronicling the adventures of a boy and his friends who cross a mystical land in search of the boy's father and to save the world. The book has all the makings of a fine children's book in the vein of "Harry Potter", but Chabon probably should have altered his writing style to make the book accessible for younger readers. Neil Gaiman did so in his children's book "Coraline" to great effect. That is perhaps the book's greatest failing.

Other than that, the book is a wonderful adventure filled with colorful characters and self-discovery. If anything, too much occurs in the book, and I found myself anxiously waiting for Chabon to take me to the climax of the story. Regardless, it wasn't a difficult wait. Older readers (15+) of the Harry Potter series should enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Inspired fantasy, but the characters are somewhat blurry
Review: Michael Chabon's first attempt at a novel for children (actually, for adolescents above age 12 or so) is a qualified success. "Summerland" has several things going for it: an imaginative plot, a magical setting, clever plays on words, Native American mythology, and lots of baseball metaphors. Yet--and this is a surprise for the author of "Kavalier and Clay"--the characters never really emerge from the dugout.

First, the highlights. Chabon's marvelous fantasy world is a multiverse: four different universes (the "human" world, Summerland, Winterland, and an inaccessible branch), connected by several hidden pathways that can be crossed with the help of "Shadowtails"--creatures who can instantly "scamper" within a world or can "leap" between universes. The inhabitants of these worlds include Sasquatches (don't call them "Bigfoot"!), wererats, goblins, giants, ferishers, pixies, and innumerable other species, all of whom share a passion for playing baseball, especially to settle their many otherworldly bets, arguments, and conflicts. The four worlds are intertwined branches of the Lodgepole (alias "The Tree"), which the evil Coyote and his followers (the "Rade") plan to poison and thus end the world as we know it (or thought we knew it, until a werefox shows up in a corner of Washington State). The hero, Ethan, and his friends from Clam Island are chosen (naturally) to save the universe.

The author does an admirable job of depicting both his mystical creation and Ethan's adventures, and he does so with a good deal of wit and humor. Ultimately, however, the novel's main characters are drawn with indistinct strokes, and the supporting cast is barely drawn at all. The book's premise demands a team of nine (in order to play ball, of course), plus a variety of fiends and lingering oddballs, but Chabon doesn't really flesh out the almost twenty characters who have major screen time. The protagonists are one-note characters: Ethan (insecure and unathletic), Jennifer T (tomboyish), Thor (an outsider, but for a reason), and Mr. Feld (bumbling). The rest of the crew, unfortunately, is somewhat indistinguishable. Even after 500 pages, I couldn't tell you who was Cutbelly, who was Cinquefoil, and who was Pettipaw, and whether they were werefoxes, wererats, werewolves, or what have you. And, desperately in need of a ninth player 360 pages into the story, our heroes abduct an aging major-league Anaheim Angel, who then pretty much serves as a needless benchwarmer for the remainder of the plot.

Kids might be enthralled enough by the fantasy elements to enjoy "Summerland," but, as an adult who reads both fantasies and children's literature, I found the lack of characterization a serious disappointment. All the same, I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy the likes of Philip Pullman, C. S. Lewis, Madeleine L'Engle, and Tolkien, and who are counting the hours until the sixth Harry Potter book comes out.

Rating:
Summary: Not a good choice.
Review: Michael Chabon is the author of Wonder Boys, a beautiful story and terrific movie. It is safe to say that I was waiting with much anticipation the chance to read this book.
Oh... Disapointment! I found out that:

a) The story has no sense at all.

b) The characters are so uncharacteristic, that you could swap the lines from one to another, and never care or found out the difference.

c) The ending is so lukewarm. Un-climaxing. Boring, in a word.

d) The author wrote too much. You get confused with the action, places and characters. You get lost in the story, but not in a pleasant way.

I must say I fastened my pace in reading so I could finish it and get on to read better books.

I strongly urge you NOT to buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Major league disappointment
Review: My eight year old daughter and I approached this book with such eagerness, as we both love baseball and magic. On page 115 we made the mutual decision to give up. Michael Chabon is a talented writer for adults but he has no clue how to structure a story for young minds. Characters are fuzzy, the plot is hard to follow, and there's a lot of overwriting. (We kept saying, "Who is he again? Who are the bad guys again? What do they want?" and paging back to find out. By page 115 we still weren't clear, and ceased to care.) The more I read other writers of fiction for young people, the more I appreciate J.K Rowling.

Rating:
Summary: SUMMERLAND
Review: I'm almost through reading this wonderful novel to my 9 year old. He cannot get enough and neither can I of this wonderful mix of fantasy, adventure and folklore. Narnia, Middle Earth, Hogworts and Wind In the willows all mixed together.

Michael Chabon has written a classic. Looking forward to discovering his other works.

Rating:
Summary: A portal into childhood...
Review: Going into this book with the foreknowledge that it was aimed at adolescents, I was, of course, skeptical. I've been a Chabon fan since the release of Kavalier and Klay, and with his writing style of extravagance I wasn't sure how he would come off as a children's writer. Well, as the stars suggest, I was not disappointed. The masterful prose transformed me from the cynic I am today into the innocent I was of childhood, and made me realize, even if only for a short while, that those really are the best years of your life. Mixing fantasy, baseball, and growing up for the kids, but also underlining with a Chabonesque philosophy on the importance of the little things in life, this novel is one that I will read to my own children, and then hope they read it to their children. Just another step toward Chabon's inevitable title as one of the greatest writers of the past 20 years.

Rating:
Summary: eh...
Review: I just might not be a Chabon-type reader, but I thought the book was pretty boring. And I usually finish what I start. I stopped reading this around the middle. Maybe I just didn't like reading about an 11 year old boy trying to stop armaggedon. It just wasn't my type of fantasy, that's all. You can read it (or start reading it) for yourself and see how you like it.

Rating:
Summary: Summerland
Review: Summerland was quite a book. It's full of fantasy, lore, adventure, mystery, and excitement. As soon as you begin reading stopping will be impossible, for it will hook you with a hook that is so sharp and so curved, giving it up would be like letting your life go. It begins with a boy named Ethan Feld. He's a Little League baseball player, and he's just about the worst player in the whole history of baseball. But soon the worst baseball player of all will rise into something much better than them all. His adventure begins when some ferishers (little people from Native American lore) choose him for their hero. But what am I supposed to do, he wonders. He soon finds out that he is supposed to save the world from an infamous Coyote who plots to destroy the universe. He meets many amazing creatures along the way, and chalenging baseball games. He soon rises from the worst baseball player to one of the best, and he saves the world. It just goes to show you that, anyone can do almost anything as long as they are determined to.