Gypsyworld - Hardcover

Thompson, Julian F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805019073 ISBN 13: 9780805019070

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1992

Synopsis

Five teenagers--Alec, Brenda, Carrie, Dennis, and Elizabeth--are sold to gypsies and realize that they have the opportunity to change their world, living in a community in concert with the earth and nature.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-- If readers can believe that Gypsies from another world might come to Earth to kidnap and buy teenagers, they will love this book. However, they'll have to suspend disbe lief to get by some of the vague explanations that carry this plot in order to get to the satis fying fantasy adventure that follows. The Gyp sy King and Queen take their captives back to their own world, Gypsyworld, to show them how to make a safe, ecologically balanced envi ronment. When the young people attempt to force the King and Queen, at knifepoint, to return them to Earth, Gypsyworld faces a ma jor internal conflict. The teens end up aban doned in the woods while, true to their plans and folklore, the monarchs arrange for the young people to develop an appreciation for the environment and mastermind a way to con vince their subjects that people from Earth are educable. Although the narrative refers to the characters as ``boys'' and ``girls'' and ``kids'' and occasionally becomes didactic, Gypsyworld is fast, fun reading with a good array of char acters and unusual twists. The question that seems so important early in the book no longer matters to the YAs at the end: Was I kidnapped or did my parents sell me --Linda Tashbook, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Can a group of typical teenagers (similar to those in Thompson's A Band of Angels ) kidnapped to a parallel world learn from its different way of life? At first they mostly hang out, bickering, at the home of their kidnappers, the elected monarchs of Gypsyworld. An attempted escape results only in a kind of wilderness experience with their kidnappers' son. This brings the teens together as a group and, conveniently, into three couples. Reader interest is kept up as the first mystery (Why were the kids abducted?) is succeeded naturally by another (Will they learn the lessons of Gypsyworld and want to stay, or will they leave?). Gypsyworld itself is an environmental utopia, like Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia though less exhaustively described; its most vividly drawn difference from our world is in the greater caring and respect people have for one another and for the earth. Thompson's urge to teach leads at times to statistic-laden dialogue, and he tries too hard to imitate teenagers' speech patterns and slang. An uneven though thought-provoking story. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0805019073
• ISBN 13: 9780805019070
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 229