Starred review from November 17, 2003
This first volume (by a mother-daughter team writing under one name) in a planned trilogy melds a rousing traveling circus adventure with shades of cautionary science fiction. The near-future setting serves only to explain the absence of cars and the presence of the debilitating allergies they have caused. Otherwise, the story feels 21st-century in nearly every respect. Charlie's parents, both scientists, disappear from their home in Britain, and Charlie suspects foul play. Through flashbacks, readers learn that Charlie can communicate with cats (while he was in the jungle with his father as a toddler, Charlie's blood commingled with that of a leopard cub). Through a network of cats (who feel indebted to Charlie's parents for reasons that become clear later in the novel), Charlie is able to track the scientists, who have been kidnapped by a nebulous organization called The Corporacy. His journey to rescue them makes for a page-turning read, as he becomes the helper to a lion trainer on a circus boat bound for Paris. The ending may leave readers in a lurch, but the idea introduced toward the conclusion—that a company's best interests may not be in the cure to a disease (allergies), but rather in the profits to be made from the sale of its remedies—provides much food for thought, and fodder for future installments. Corder's most profound metaphor might be Charlie's slick analogy: that those employed by a corporation are not so different from the beautiful lions trapped in cages, held captive to "perform tricks they don't want to perform, to hand over their specialness and their skills." Ages 8-up.
Starred review from March 15, 2004
British actor Jones's sonorous delivery instantly enchants listeners in this fine adaptation of Corder's (actually the pen name for a mother-daughter duo) debut novel about an unusually gifted boy and his family's connection to cats. Charlie knows that his scientist parents are working on important experiments all the time. But he had no idea that their latest project could put them all in such great danger. When Charlie comes home from school one day to find his parents have been kidnapped, he begins a heart-pounding adventure during which he must save his family by using his special power—the ability to communicate with cats. He soon leaves the streets of London and gains passage (and a lion "taming" job) with a floating circus, all the while picking up clues about his parents from felines in various ports. A daring escape from the circus, with lions in tow, eventually leads Charlie to some new and influential friends who vow to help him in his search for his parents. Simon compels listeners through the excitement with smooth pacing and a rhythm that sustains the perfect level of suspense. In his command, the numerous bad guys sound appropriately shady, and circus performers take on vibrant color. And readers are treated to lion dialogue as well. The story is planned to continue in two more Corder novels—and hopefully two more Simon narrations. Ages 8-up.
October 4, 2004
A boy who can speak with felines traverses a Europe fraught with rampant, mysterious allergies to find his abducted parents, with the aid of a team of lions. According to PW
, this novel "melds a rousing traveling circus adventure with shades of cautionary science fiction." Ages 8-up.