Jim Ugly

From Publishers Weekly In this comic, suspense-laden Western adventure, Jake searches for his supposedly dead father, an itinerant actor, with the help of Jim Ugly, his father's wolf-like dog. The hunt takes them from Blowfly, Nev., to San Francisco, with Jim Ugly reluctantly accepting Jake's authority. Their grudging but dogged teamwork helps them fend off a beautiful actress, a money-hungry cousin and a bounty hunter--all seeking out Jake's father and the fortune in diamonds they believe he has. Finding work with a theater company, Jake is reunited with his father on stage. The pursuers give up when Dad returns the diamonds in the craws of hundreds of chickens and the curtain falls on a happy scene, with Jake making peace with Jim and his father marrying the beautiful actress. Fleischman's ( The Whipping Boy ) light, tautly constructed genre piece is like the hair-raising melodramas in which Jake appears: certain to entertain, with all plot lines neatly tied together at the end. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 8-up. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Grade 4-8-- With a little silent-movie piano accompaniment, this rollicking parody of Western melodrama would effortlessly unfold across any stage. It is 1894, and Jake Bannock's actor father, Sam, has just been buried. The 12-year-old boy is seemingly left an orphan with no inheritance except for an unnamed, one-man dog, ``part elkhound, part something else, and a large helping of short-eared timber wolf.'' Jake calls him Jim Ugly. Mystery arises immediately . Where are the diamonds his dad is accused of stealing? Was that really Dad buried there in the Nevada Desert at Blowfly? Jake sets out in search of the answers, aided by Jim Ugly's keen nose. The two travel by baggage car from one town to another, trying to avoid a bounty-hunting, former cavalry sergeant who villainously skulks around the story's corners. Jake tells his own adventurous story--how he meets Wilhelmina Marlybone-Jenkins, an actress who was Sam's sweetheart; how he plays the apple-balancing role of William Tell's son with a traveling theatrical troupe; and how his search pays off when he sees his father--alive and well--on a San Francisco trolley. The climax and resolution make for a wonderfully improbable, mesquite flavored, farce. Jake's voice is simple and direct, made vivid by Fleischman's command of simile and metaphor. --Katharine Bruner, Brown Middle School, Harrison, TNCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.