The Maestro

by Tim Wynne-Jones

Overview

Burl Crow hasn't had many breaks in his young life. His father is a manipulative lout with a dangerous temper; his mother, worn down by years of abuse, now resorts to her little helpers to get her through the days. Then he meets Nathaniel Orlando Gow, the Maestro, and in just one day, this eccentric genius changes Burl's life forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780888996374
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	12/16/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	4.35(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.45(d)
Lexile:	700L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

TIM WYNNE-JONES is the author of more than 35 books and is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Award, as well as a two-time winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and of the Arthur Ellis Award. His recent books include War at the Snow White Motel and The Starlight Claim. Tim is the recipient of the Edgar Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work and is an Officer to the Order of Canada. He lives in Perth, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

(as The Survival Game) Wynne-Jones paints a powerful picture of the effects of abuse...One of the most delightful aspects of this compelling story is Wynne-Jones's sharp perspicacity and language...An intensely enjoyable read for 12+.

Inis Magazine (Ireland)

(as The Survival Game)...marvelously tense...It's a remarkable book.

Books for Keeps (UK)

...a gift for a group of readers not often enough offered work of this caliber.

Globe and Mail

With a brutal, despicable father who beats him and an ineffectual mother incapacitated by drugs, Burl, 14, has learned not to expect anything good from life. After a crisis, he runs away into the wilderness near his small Canadian town, eventually stumbling upon an isolated house that is the secret refuge of a famous musician. Burt ingratiates himself, making himself useful while harboring the hope of staying on. But the boy's relationship with his reluctant savior is only the first in a series of encounters with those who want to use him, assist him, control him, or threaten him. Wynne-Jones (The Book of Changes, 1995, etc.) skillfully presents a complex character who, in order to survive, uses all his resources: knowledge of the woods; an instinctive understanding of the manipulations of adults; strategy; brutality, the legacy of his father; and compassion.

Lyrical writing combines with an unpredictable, unusual plot to convincingly test a teenager facing life-altering choices. A truly compelling adventure story.

Kirkus Reviews