Green Thumb

by Rob Thomas

Overview

Winner of two National Science Fairs for his work on plant life, thirteen-year-old Grady Jacobs isn't exactly Mr. Popularity. But he doesn't care. He's spending the summer with the famous botanist Dr. Phillip Carter in the Amazon jungle trying to save the rain forest with a new species of super trees. Although his duties are mostly relegated to kitchen patrol, Grady stumbles on a startling discovery: a binary system of sounds that enables him to control the movement of trees.
Even as Grady discovers the tree language, he realizes that Carter's super trees aren't replenishing the Amazon's ecosystem -- they're killing it. When his unauthorized experiments are discovered, Grady flees from Carter's camp and finds refuge with the Urah-wau Indian tribe. but even with the tribe's help and the secret tree language, can Grady stop Carter's super trees?
With his keen eye for popular culture now trained on the environment, award-winning author Rob Thomas tells a coming-of-age story bursting with action and adventure. Hanh on to that vine: It's going to be a wild ride.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442468115
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	06/12/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Lexile:	910L (what's this?)
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Rob Thomas is the creator and executive producer of the television series Veronica Mars. He is also a cocreator and executive producer of the cable television series Party Down. In addition to his television work, Thomas is the author of several young adult books including Rats Saw God, Slave Day, Satellite Down, and Doing Time: Notes From the Undergrad. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife Katie, daughter Greta, and son Hank. Visit him at SlaveRats.com.

Editorial Reviews

Thousands of miles from the high school halls of Slave Day and Rats Saw God, Thomas delivers an action-adventure novel largely set in the rain forest of Brazil. Thirteen-year-old science whiz Grady Jacobs finds junior high a snore. He lives for his botany experiments, which have made him National Science Fair champ for two years running. To his great pleasure, Grady's r sum earns him a spot on a research team working to save the rain forest. But the team leader, Dr. Carter, has assumed Grady is a college student, and when he realizes his mistake, he promptly saddles the boy with all the scut work. Grady masters the chores, then finds time to do his own projects, which include learning to control the movement of plants and trees using sound waves. In the process Grady also discovers something dangerous and evil: unbeknownst to the native peoples and the research team's U.S. benefactors, Dr. Carter is populating the rain forest with genetically engineered poison trees. While this book is aimed at a slightly younger audience than Thomas's previous YA titles, Grady's knowing, flip tone will appeal to Thomas's older teen fans. Grady's botanical talents skirt the fantastic and many readers may find themselves slowed by several discussions of scientific theory. But those who stick with it will find plenty of compelling situations. The author, who is also the creator and writer of the TV series Cupid, brings his screenwriting experience to bear as well; he provides the kind of exciting visual detail usually associated with action movies. Ages 10-14. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 6-8Grady Jacobs, a 13-year-old botanical genius, is invited to participate in a rain forest study supported by international business interests. He has won several science fairs, and his research into the cloning of plants has interested Dr. Phillip Carter, head of the reforestation Embryo Project. When Grady arrives in Brazil, he is relegated to grunt work. In between gathering food, cooking, and cleaning, he investigates Dr. Carters New Forest, a grove of super-growth trees used to reforest a clear-cut area. The secrets he discovers send him fleeing into the wilds, with Dr. Carter hunting him at every turn. Befriended by members of a local tribe, the newly named Green Thumb must fight to stop the deadly Embryo Project and save his own life. Thomas has created a middle-school version of his earlier heroes, a joking smart aleck whose humor draws readers into his world. Too sure of his own intelligence, Grady is bored by school and anyone his own age, especially the local bullies. His botanical research has been conducted like his social lifecold, clinical, and as faraway from others as possible. Through his struggle to survive, Grady learns the importance of valuing different kinds of intelligence. The vitality of the rain forest forces him to realize that research in a vacuum cannot answer vital questions. Our hero ends up a better scientist, people smart, and a little humble, which is an appealing combination.Mary B. McCarthy, ACLIN/Colorado State Library Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

In a departure from his realistic novels, Thomas (Satellite Down, 1998, etc.) tries a science fiction adventure intended for younger readers, with less success. Grady, 13, is a junior-high geek and botanist who is invited to join a secret forest regeneration project in the Amazon. The project is directed by the mysterious Dr. Carter, who turns out to be, not surprisingly, a standard mad scientist. When Grady arrives at the site he is scorned because his colleagues were unaware of his youth; assigned to drudge work and left alone at the campsite, Grady surreptitiously analyzes the data the team has collected, and realizes that Dr. Carter is growing poisonous trees that are destroying the food chain. When his efforts are discovered by Dr. Carter, Grady escapes from the camp and joins the local Indians. The book shifts into an action adventure tale, as Grady fights hostile tribes and attempts to foil Dr. Carter. While the scenario is imaginative and Thomas doesn't completely abandon his forté, characterization, at the core this novel is a kids-know-best shoot-'em-up. When Grady blossoms into an Amazonian superhero, the author's fans may feel the threat of incredibility, but they'll also have to turn every page to the end. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews

Grady Jacobs wins the name "Green Thumb" from the jungle natives when he joins a rain forest project in Brazil. Narrator Johnny Heller punches up the humorous dialogue with his boyish reading of Grady's spectacular adventures: This kid foils an evil scientist, swings on vines, shoots blowguns, and even commands the trees, proving to be much smarter than any adult in sight. Of course, Grady sounds a lot more like an 18-year-old than a 13-year-old, but that may be because Thomas has written young adult books up to now, as well as working on TV's "Dawson's Creek." Still, whatever his age, Grady is a fun guy to spend time with. M.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 00 - AudioFile