基本信息出版社：Philomel
页码：224 页
出版日期：2007年04月
ISBN：0399246568
International Standard Book Number：0399246568
条形码：9780399246562
EAN：9780399246562
装帧：精装
正文语种：英语

内容简介 From the New York Times-bestselling author of the Spenser mysteries.

There is something evil in the air. Fourteen-year-old Bobby senses it. Who is that man he saw arguing with his pretty, new English teacher? And what was the real reason she missed school for days afterward? Bobby knows he should mind his own business, but times are confusing. World War II has just ended and the world is changing. Bobby's world, especially. There's his relationship with Joanie, for one-why does being her friend feel awkward all of a sudden? And then there are his buddies, the junior varsity Edenville Owls-a group of basketball players in need of a leader. Can they help each other off the court as well as they can on it? They will need to. Something evil is in the air
作者简介 Robert B. Parker brings the same powerful story line and spare, atmospheric prose to his first novel for young readers that he does to his New York Times bestselling Spenser novels. A perfect fit. Robert B. Parker lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
专业书评 From Booklist

Edgar-winning-author Parker, whose characters are among the most enduring in the crime-fiction canon, offers his first novel for a young audience in this nostalgic story, set in 1945. In a small, coastal Massachusetts town, eighth-grader Bobby witnesses a parking-lot altercation between his pretty new teacher and a shady-looking fellow. Then Miss Delaney comes to school with facial bruises, and Bobby, convinced that the unsavory man is to blame, recruits his best friends to protect her. Bobby has also organized his friends into a basketball team, the Owls, and with only Bobby as a stand-in coach, the boys begin to compete and dream of winning a local tournament. Readers without any basketball background may be lost in the lengthy game specifics, but the team's intrepid energy on the court echoes the Owls' determination to help their teacher and solve the mystery of her troubling past. The appearance of a few derogatory racial terms, although true to the characters' voices, may jar contemporary readers, who may also skip over purposefully inserted, stream-of-consciousness passages filled with historical and cultural references. The poignant, well-articulated coming-of-age moments deepen the heart-pounding suspense, though, and Bobby's questions of what it means to be honorable and to feel attraction to a female friend will draw readers as much as will the exciting mystery. See the accompanying Story behind the Story for Parker's take on writing for youth. Gillian Engberg
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