Ellen Booraem
Author of The Unnameables
About the Author
Works by Ellen Booraem
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Agent
- Daphne Unfeasible
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 4
- Members
- 481
- Popularity
- #51,317
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 28
- ISBNs
- 19
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 1
Conor, the rule-following, fantasy mapmaking, spider-phobic hero is endearingly smart and funny. It was a treat to watch him become the hero he never thought he could be.
The father-son-grandfather and the brother-sister relationships are well-drawn and add to the story.
Tiny niggle: I didn't care for the phonetic spelling of the Irish names. I don't know if reincarnation is a little too weird as a theme for a kid's book, but it made a great plot device.
A few favorite quotes:
"particularly if you needed help faking a sudden inability to determine the speed of Train A in relation to Train B. The right answer required brains, but a believeable wrong answer? That took real talent."
"Nobody took Javier seriously--he was way too smart, his face too angelic, his eyelashes too long. He often spent recess fixing the computer in the principal's office--an act that was so far beyond nerdy that it left most of his classmates speechless."
"Well then, dying is unacceptable," Ms. Wright said. "Back to class now."
"To make himself feel better, Conor located himself on his cell phone GPS. Sure enough, there he was at Barbara McMichael Middle School, one-point-seven miles from 36A Crumlin Street."… (more)