Metro Girl


By Janet Evanovich
HarperCollins, 2004
304 pp., $26.95
    Good news for fans of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. The master of the comedic crime novels has begun a new series with “Metro Girl,” a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud funny book that most readers will hate to put down.
    Alex Barnaby (named for Evanovich’s daughter, Alex, and Alex’s St. Bernard) is alarmed when she gets a mysterious call in the middle of the night from her brother Bill in Miami. When the line goes dead and Bill disappears, Alex (called Barney) hops the first flight to Florida. Barney soon discovers that her little brother was in deep trouble: His apartment has been ransacked, and an over-developed, one-eyed hit man is after him—and wouldn’t mind using Barney as bait. To top it off, it appears that Bill has stolen the prize boat of NASCAR star Sam Hooker, and Hooker is determined to stick as close to Barney as possible until Bill and the boat turn up.
    Evanovich employs the same slapstick humor that makes the Plum series so much fun to read, as well as strong supporting characters that manage to be both broadly stereotypical and uniquely, hysterically funny. “Metro Girl” will make the wait for the next Stephanie Plum book, “Eleven On Top,” more bearable.
—Earlita K. Chenault

Children’s Bookshelf

Jump-Man Rule #1: Don’t Touch Anything


By James Valentine
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004
268 pp., $14.95
Recommended for ages 9-15

    In the future, kids don’t play with Game Boys; they play with JumpMans. JumpMans take you back in time: You can see dinosaurs, visit the Great Pyramids or even witness the “Big Bang.” But the people who make the JumpMans don’t want kids going just anywhere. That’s why it’s such a big deal when 51st-century Theo finds himself in the bedroom of 21st-century Genevieve—just as her friend Jules is about to ask her out on a date. Theo, a seasoned time-jumper, knows if he breaks the one TimeJump rule—don’t touch anything—he will change history forever.
    Readers will be on the edge of their seats waiting to find out whether: 1) Theo can get back to his own time without decomposing; 2) the course of history will be altered for ill; 3) Jules and Gen ever go out on that date?
    James Valentine employs all the tricks of the best storytellers—cliff-hangers, time travel, romance and loads of humor—in this new book that kids will jump on in a big way.
—Jane Chisaki

Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl


By Virginia‑Hamilton,
Illustrated by James Ransome
Blue Sky Press, 2003
40 pp., $16.95
Recommended
for ages 5-8

    Bruh Rabbit is a wily trickster who outsmarts hardworking, earnest, but gullible, Bruh Wolf. Bruh Wolf gets the upper hand for a short time when he makes an attractive but sticky tar baby girl to which Bruh Rabbit becomes attached. But the tricky rabbit convinces the unsuspecting wolf to throw him back into the briar patch where he can gloat: “I was bred and born in this place.”
    The Tar Baby is a character all children should know. Newbery Medalist Virginia Hamilton’s lyrical retelling is perfect for reading aloud and will delight listeners of all ages. This book has extraordinary illustrations that would captivate the attention of any child, even ones with short attention spans.
—Jane Chisaki

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs


Edited by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe and Sabin Streeter
Three Rivers Press, 2000, 2001
672 pp., $16
    Do you eavesdrop? Peer surreptitiously into your neighbors’ windows? (In a harmless, non-stalker-ish way, that is.) Do you, in short, have an immense curiosity about people?
    If so, “Gig” is the book for you. Inspired by Studs Terkel’s classic “Working,” this marvelous collection of 126 interviews with real people about their jobs/careers/work actually surpasses its muse. These three- to nine-page interviews aren’t merely contemporary updates; they’re seamless mini-biographies told with strong, distinct voices.
    Within “Gig” you’ll meet Jim Churchman, an optimistic 66-year-old retired schoolteacher turned Wal-Mart greeter; you’ll meet Chris and Isaac Mauro, juvenile entrepreneurs who wisely discuss marketing strategies of the cutthroat world of lemonade salesmanship; you’ll meet Monica Joyce Childs, a homicide detective who originally joined the police force because she didn’t like the police, and many others.
    People are the strength behind “Gig;” together, these interviews shove back the unfamiliar trappings of the stranger to reveal, instead, the familiar face
of humanity.
—Amy Johnson