KIT'S WILDERNESS

It's hard to get a handle on this dark story of a boy and his adventures in an ancient coal pit where the kids play a game called "Death." Charles Keating gives the proceedings Shakespearean importance with his solemn reading. This seems apt, since this story is as hard to understand as some Shakespeare, even without the Elizabethan English. Even though Almond just won major honors in young adult fiction for his debut novel, SKELLIG, being lost in KIT'S WILDERNESS proves neither enjoyable nor enlightening. M.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 00]