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Summary: Review of "Dust" Div.6-7
Review: "Dust" starts off with a little boy (Matthew) being kidnapped while walking to town. Robert (Matthews older brother)is starting to get suspicious of the new man in town ,who is making all of these attractions. Other kids started to go missing right after the mysterious man came to to Robert's class.Weird things startgoing on in town,what is happening to this town? Is the mysterious man involved? Read the book and find out. I think 'Dust' is an exceptional book filled with emotion,mystery,and adventure. This book is wonderful,the author has a great imagination to put all of the book together ina way like that. I would give this book a 10 out of 10 for being so great. I would say this book has everything in it ,like a pizza with all the right toppings.I would recommend 'Dust' to any readers that like a good fiction book
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Summary: deus ex machina
Review: Abram Harsich is a skin-crawling amalgum of Humbert Humbert, Professor Harold Hill, and one of Philip Pullman's villains. The book was profoundly compelling until the conclusion, which I found to be a bit of a deus ex machina. Excellent writing and fascinating premise, though I wish the author would have rounded out the nature of his universe with more information.
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Summary: Why haven't I heard of this book???
Review: Arthur Slade uses his young hero's imagination to good effect in Dust. Robert, 12-years-old, is a voracious reader, and his imagination and his suspension of disbelief are the keys to the story's success. If John Carter can go to Mars just by reaching out his hand and thinking about it, then Robert can unravel the mystery of the disappearing children. Dust is a nice mix of SF, fantasy, horror, mystery. I like the way Slade uses Robert's fanciful thoughts to build atmosphere, like the smoky pool hall, which might be just above hell. :) Well-written, reminescent (sp?) of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.
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Summary: Let your imagination go
Review: Arthur Slade uses his young hero's imagination to good effect in Dust. Robert, 12-years-old, is a voracious reader, and his imagination and his suspension of disbelief are the keys to the story's success. If John Carter can go to Mars just by reaching out his hand and thinking about it, then Robert can unravel the mystery of the disappearing children. Dust is a nice mix of SF, fantasy, horror, mystery. I like the way Slade uses Robert's fanciful thoughts to build atmosphere, like the smoky pool hall, which might be just above hell. :) Well-written, reminescent (sp?) of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.
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Summary: Why haven't I heard of this book???
Review: As a a 6th grade teacher, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had a "hook" from the beginning and kept me wondering until the end. It offers a number of "springboards" for teaching vocabulary and subjects from the Bible and ancient history. I hope to get enough copies to read in literature circles. (...)
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Summary: A Sci-Fi Mystery...
Review: During the Great Depression, Robert's younger brother Matthew disappears from a small dusty prairie community in Saskatchewan, after Robert refuses to walk into town with him. Plagued with guilt, Robert finds himself at first drawn to the new stranger in town, Abram Harsich, who claims he can help the town's dry spell by building a "rainmill." However, as the rest of the townspeople fall under Abram's spell, Robert and his Uncle Alden seem to be the only ones who think that Abram isn't who he says he is. More children start to disappear and eventually Robert starts to piece together the mystery. The premise of the book was interesting, but all the supernatural elements were kind of strange. And the ending was just unfulfilling.
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Summary: Superbly written award-winning novel
Review: Dust won the Governor General award for children's literature in 2001, and rightly so. This novel is refreshingly different, with strong character development, and unexpected plot development. I couldn't put it down.
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Summary: Stephen King for Canadians
Review: Fascinating novel, stunningly written. I believe this book won the Governor General's Award. Very well deserved.
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Summary: A multi-layered fantasy
Review: I am a lover of fantasy and this book ranks as one of the best with me. It has all the necessary elements--the reluctant but driven hero, the quest which only he can accomplish, the satisfying conclusion. Along the way Arthur Slade keeps the reader spellbound and wondering. I read the book in one day, unable to put it down. After I finished, I found that I couldn't stop thinking about it. The images are still fresh in my mind. I've reread it now and have discovered even more layers to it. This is a book that you can't wait to finish, but at the same time don't want to finish. The only solution is to start reading it all over again.
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Summary: Odd
Review: I had high expectations concerning Dust, and was quite disappointed. It was certainly well written, and at the beginning I was hooked and wanted to find out what was happening. But it degenerated into something unrealistic, weird and silly. The ending was a complete let down.
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