No Passengers Beyond This Point

No Passengers Beyond This Point is a book that I wanted to read for a long time based on the very cool cover. The book did not disappoint! Each chapter was told from a different point of view. I enjoyed this because India was such a typical teenager, Finn was so much the brother who wants to help everybody, and Mouse was a little girl who knew a ton of facts, but had some social struggles. I felt terrible for them when they lost their home and had to move. I felt even worse when they had to struggle through their new home and strange land. No one would give them any answers, and they had so much to figure out! I kept thinking about it and wondering if I had it all correct, but I wasn't really sure until the end. And even then, there is show more a little mystery (I don’t want to give anything away). This is a book that will make you think. It made me realize that it's our will to live and our will to survive that gets us to where we are. I recommend this book to kids in fourth grade and up, and to people who have a sense of adventure. What would you do if you were in a new place and had to decide if you should stay or go? show less

I am finally getting down to the last few ARCs from ALA Midwinter...2011, which I have not yet read. I took a stack on the plane with me to ALA Midwinter 2013 and got through about 5 books.

I have not read Choldenko's hugely popular Al Capone books. I had not even realized they were that popular until I casually mentioned she had a new one coming out and a hitherto silent and hostile group of 5th graders broke out into spontaneous cheers. However, I understand this book is a radical departure from her previous titles and style. I hope so, because it's not only one I wouldn't recommend, it's one I will anti-recommend.

You all like a really strong negative review, right? Settle in, I am going to be negative. Not critical, NEGATIVE.

India, show more Finn, and Mouse know there's something wrong with Mom. India doesn't want to admit anything's wrong and she's wrapped up in hating her family and being a teenager with her best friend Maddy. Finn is desperately worried, but he's pretty much always worried, always trying to be the peacemaker, always trying to measure up to some invisible point. Mouse is a typical eccentric genius child and is satisfied with her invisible friend and her obsession with facts and astronomy.

Then Mom tells them their house is gone and they are moving to Colorado. Without her. Tomorrow. They find themselves on a plane and when they get off...they are somewhere else. A strange place where everyone knows their names, their deepest desires, and what matters most to them. Or do they? Finn knows right away that he wants to get back to his own family and place and Mouse quickly agrees. But India thinks she may have finally found a place that really appreciates her, where she can be herself. But who is she really?

SPOILERS

As is fairly obvious (at least to me) the kids have been in a plane crash and are in a sort of...heaven? Eventually, they make it back and are the only survivors through a series of miracles. Now, Choldenko is a good writer. I kept reading even though I found the story annoying, nonsensical, and increasingly disturbing. If you want to read a stream-of-consciousness fable about life and life after death, go ahead. This is for you.

If, however, like most middle grade readers you want a story with interesting events and people you will be disappointed. Despite Choldenko's writing ability, the three children never rose above their stereotyped characters. The platitudes, albeit written in a unique and interesting way, are still platitudes. Most of all the final message in the book is FREAKING DISTURBING. Do not give this book to anyone who has ever lost a family member or close friend, especially if it was a child. In the final epilogue, a folksy local woman (named Mrs. Bean of course) talks to an invisible audience about how she found the children with the help of her dog. She also says that when the kids' mom came "She said she just knows in her gut they's alive. Moms know that kind of thing." (I'm sure every mother who's ever had a lost or missing child would love this miraculous ability to know whether or not they're alive). Then she says "Somethin' on the inside makes one person want to save himself where the next one just gives on up."

This is the whole gist of the kids' adventures in the strange beyond-death world. They escape because they want it so badly. So...the other kids on the plane really just wanted to die, or didn't care about their family enough to come back. Your dead child did not love you enough to come back, is basically what this is saying. This is beyond disturbing.

In addition to that, the nowhere place the kids go to is pretty obviously meant to be heaven. It's not purgatory, it's not an in-between place, it's the final destination. It's boring, depressing, frightening, and weird. Have your kid read that and expect nightmares about death for the next, oh, three months or so at least. Whatever your beliefs about life (or not) after death, I have trouble seeing this as a way to reassure children about what comes after death, no matter what you believe.

Verdict: All I can think of as an excuse for this book is that Choldenko became so caught up in the beauty of her own writing she forgot about plot, character, or what the book was actually saying. Of course, quite a few people have read and liked this and obviously didn't see the very disturbing messages I did. Some reviews call it Kafkaesque. That's ok, different tastes and all, maybe you have nine year olds who really like Kafka. I'm still not buying it or recommending it. Ever.

ISBN: 9780803735347; Published February 2011 by Dial Books; ARC provided by publisher at ALA Midwinter 2011 show less

This odd, winding, and dreamlike story concerns the three Tompkins kids. Their single mother, who has been financially struggling to keep their California house, announces that the bank will be taking it. The children (beautiful and self-centred India, 14; responsible, worrisome Finn, 12; and genius Aspie child, Mouse, 6) must fly out the next night to Denver, Colorado to begin living with Uncle Red. Their mother will finish the school year in California with her grade-6 class, hoping she will get a recommendation towards a new teaching position. However, the plane flight ends abruptly, and the children find themselves picked up not by Uncle Red, but by Chuck, a child taxi-driver impersonating an adult. They are taken to the city of show more Falling Bird--rather than Fort Baker where Uncle Red lives. Initially, Falling Bird is the land of wish fulfillment--all of the siblings are given their own dream houses, dream foods, dream experiences and dream parent substitutes--but the dreams end as abruptly as the plane flight did. The children fall from a great height (each in his or her own way) and begin a race against time in this bizarre rule-bound city with its walls, tunnels, silver rooms, and its sky-blue uniformed men and women. The young taxi driver has told the kids that their lives somehow depend putting three wooden puzzle pieces together, finding a tunnel dog, and recovering a black box.

I have to say I was wondering how the author was going to translate the "dream logic" and tie up the story. When she did, it made perfect sense, of course. However, this two-hour reading journey with its apparently disconnected happenings, strange gadgets, and rides in trams, carts, and segways, just felt too long. In real life, unless one is a Jungian analyst perhaps, people's eyes tend to glaze over when another person recounts the intricate details of last night's dream. The dreamlike sequences that fill approximately 2/3 of this book provided a comparative reading challenge.

Sadly, the bulk of the tale focuses on India, the superficial and unpleasant eldest child. It makes sense, of course, because she is the one who most needs to grow. Unfortunately being with her so much of the time was not particularly enjoyable.

Choldenko most definitely can write, but all the odd bits and pieces did not seem to fit together enough to make an understandable (or logical--at least in places) narrative. The resolution made sense of most of the earlier experiences and even cast them in a deeper, philosophical light. Much patience is required in reading this challenging text, and I personally would have appreciated being thrown a bone or two along the way.

I admire what the author was trying to do--or at least what I think she was trying to do: provide us with a sort of metaphysical, "soul rendering" of a physical experience, but in the end I don't think it worked. Young readers may surprise me by liking this story, but my gut feeling is that many simply won't stick with it long enough to find out what was really going on. show less

From Kirkus Review: Surly India, worrywart Finn and smartypants Mouse are shipped off to Colorado to live with their uncle after their family home is lost to foreclosure. But too soon after take-off, their plane lands in a strange town named Falling Bird, where they are greeted like long-lost heroes and whisked off to three separate homes, each fully loaded with their heart’s desires. Each child is given a clock that is counting down and told that when the time is up, a decision must be made to leave or stay. But leave or stay where? Colorado? Oz? Or somewhere else entirely? As always, the author shines in her characterization of children and their idiosyncratic kidspeak. Each sibling takes a turn in the narration, giving readers show more front-row seats to their psyches. But the convoluted mystery of Falling Bird isn’t revealed until the very last pages, and by then some young readers may have lost interest in trying to interpret a Kafka-esque world with too few clues and a confusing host of secondary characters. Fascinating, if not entirely successful. show less

Summary: After the bank forecloses on their house, their mom sends Finn, India and Mouse to fictional Ft. Baker, Colorado to live with their Uncle Red. Since mom is a school teacher and they need the money from her job, she will join them once the school year ends. However, it's not Ft. Baker where they land, but Falling Bird. Reminiscent of Dorothy's trip to Oz, the children soon realize that Falling Bird is like no place they have ever heard of - and though at first it seems like a wonderful place to India and Mouse (Finn is more skeptical), they soon realize that home is where you family is and "there is no place like home." But time is running out. Will they beat the clock and make it home?

This story had the beginnings of a show more realistic story detailing an all too common experience for many families in today's economy. When the plane lands the story shifts from realistic fiction to fantasy. It is a little confusing - trying to figure out just what is going on - but the confusion the reader feels is the same as the characters. Choldenko's craftily woven plot pulls the reader into the story, making it easy for readers to identify with the characters. Half the fun of the reading the book is trying to solve the puzzle.

Young adults/pre-teens will identify with how the children feel about being uprooted from their home. Adults will appreciate the growth the children experience as they try to find their way back.

Readers who enjoy a bit of a mystery with a twist and a little bit of fantasy will enjoy this book.

Recommended for 4th Grade and up.

Mrs. Archer's rating: 4 of 5 show less

I had considered this title for our Mock Newbery group, but after listening to it on CD with my kids, I decided that there wasn't enough to it. It's a weird fantasy/survival story with 3 child characters, the oldest of whom is entirely too annoyingly adolescent, too unbelievably attached to an undeserving friend in a time of familial crisis. Without revealing the indecipherable-at-first-listening surprise ending, let it just be said that neither the characters, plot, nor otherweirdly setting merit the reader's time.

I honestly have to say I'm ambivalent about Gennifer Choldenko's newest novel, No Passengers Beyond This Point. It was pretty average overall (regarding the characters, setting development, etc), but the ending alone might be powerful enough to change my opinion!

The characters were, overall, pretty average. I enjoyed how India, Mouse, and Finn bonded during their "trip" to Falling Bird. I especially loved their family bond! The change I saw in India's personality was realistic and well-done, but I am confident Choldenko could do better.

The plot is definitely creative. It starts off as a "realistic fiction" type story, and then turns into a sci-fi. It's very unique, and I enjoyed it. Again, I am convinced that Choldenko could have show more improved her "scattered ideas." The story, however, that Choldenko pulls off is so simple; yet so complex.

The ending was most definitely the thing that saved this book from being completely average. The ending was definitely random, but it made sense. And while it wasn't a perfect "Happily Ever After," it is still a happy ending to the story that makes readers think. However, I think that the end came too abruptly and that Choldenko didn't give her readers the complete story of how this relates to the town of Falling Bird.

All in all, I expect to see much more of Jennifer Choldenko as a writer; I think she's really got some talent that's just waiting to come out! Additionally, I feel this is going to be "one of those books" that you either wholeheartedly love or downright hate. show less