By Kurtis Scaletta
PRMS hardcover 271
Historical fiction? 1982, VHS tapes, Atari Pac-Mac . . .
Realistic fiction?
(I talked with some students about it and they said realistic fic . . . I love my genrefied collection!)
12 year old Linus and older brother Larry (“Law”) move with mom and dad to Liberia where dad will work with the U.S. embassy. Linus has been a scaredy-cat and wants to create a
new reality . . . but they see a black mamba snake (actually grey . . .
very dangerous, very fast) as soon as they get off the airplane. Then
Linus starts seeing one whenever he goes outside.
He gets to know a “Charlie” (a street seller of
masks, etc.)named Sekou who tells him about a kaseng – a connection with
an animal that is almost supernatural.
Matt is the kid downstairs who likes to stay
indoors and play games. He’s kind of antisocial. There are lots of
characters, details, etc. that are with me now but will likely get lost
with time. Ah well. I wouldn’t mind re-reading it with
a group of kids if the opportunity arises.
This started slowly for me, but I got more and more
engaged in the story as it went along. I liked how Linus changed, but
kept some of his sweet qualities (like caring about the two kids –
Gambeh and Tokie – who are clearly poor and hungry).
I wondered if Linus was imagining the snake, then I
wanted people to know about his connection to it, then . . . yep, I
cared about this kid and his deadly “pet.”
Spoiler (sort of) Toward the end of the book, when
he is saying goodbye to his mamba, he thinks “So you can be whoever you
want” and “It poked its head up, as if it wanted me to pay close
attention to its next point: So can you, it said.”
I’ve met the author at a signing event. I loved
this book and his note at the end about his experience as a kid in
Liberia. I look forward to reading more of his work.
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