《学校图书馆杂志》(School Library Journal)书评
Gr 4-7-Set about 150 years ago, Paulsen's latest offering is a ripsnorting adventure, and nothing more, most similar to a Saturday-matinee cliff-hanger of several decades back. In this fourth volume about Francis, 15, and the children he "adopted," Lottie and Billy, the trio struggles to stay out of the clutches of the evil Comancheros (men who trade with the nomadic Comanches) from whom the youngsters escaped in the previous book. Paulsen's trademark emphasis on survival, "man versus nature," is here in fine measure, but so, too, is a melodramatic plot. First, the three young people are saved from their pursuers by a summer thunderstorm; then they find an escaped group of Indian ponies; then they discover a cache of Spanish gold. Next, Francis is bitten by a rattlesnake and nursed back to health by Pueblo Indians while Lottie and Billy learn to live with the tribe. Finally, after the threesome leaves the Pueblos to resume their search for Francis's real family, the Comancheros catch them. In a conclusion that's shockingly violent for the intended audience, the young people kill their captors. Their journey, in conjunction with any one or two of the above episodes, might have been the heart of a first-rate novel, but combined, it's all just too unbelievable. No doubt Tucket's fans will clamor for the book, but it's mostly a nonnutritive meal.-Coop Renner, Moreno Elementary School, El Paso, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
《儿童读物杂志》(Horn Book)书评
Accompanied by two abandoned children, Francis Tucket continues to search for his family on the Western frontier. In a choppy plot, the travelers discover a hidden cache of gold and silver and temporarily live with Pueblo Indians after Francis is felled by a snakebite. Reading like the middle portion of a longer work--which it is--the volume moves the series forward in a fast-paced but perfunctory manner. From HORN BOOK Spring 2000, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus评论
The fourth installment of Paulsen's Tucket Adventures (Tucket's Ride, 1997, etc.) is instantly involving, with plotting that rockets along. Francis Tucket, 15, and his two young charges, the talkative Lottie and her little brother, Billy, are on the run, one step ahead of the ruthless Comancheros, ``the dirt-meanest men Francis had ever seen in a world full of mean men.'' The children are valuable commodities on the frontier, easily ``sold or traded into slavery.'' As the youngsters flee, they battle the elements, find a treasure, meet up with a tribe of friendly Pueblo Indians, and are captured by a pair of pitiless thieves. The book is bursting with clearly limned, colorful characters and despite his lightning pace, Paulsen finds time for softer moments as well. Francis, for example, who hasn't seen his kin since he was stolen by the Pawnee, realizes that he loves Lottie and Billy, and that they ``were more of a family to him than the one he'd lost.'' This invigorating story is just right for readers who like their action at a gallop. (Fiction. 9-12)
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Gr. 4^-6. This fourth installment in the Tucket Adventures series finds 15-year-old Francis and his adopted family, Lottie and Billy, still making their way back to the Oregon Trail. After escaping from some Comanchero outlaws, they head north, discovering the remains of an old Spaniard, including his gold and silver. Then they encounter some abandoned ponies, spend time in a Pueblo village awaiting Francis' recovery from a snakebite, and confront two villains from the first Tucket book, Courtweiler and Dubs. As always, Paulsen's strength is his attention to details of the setting and the specifics of wilderness survival. Francis and the children are likable characters, and the action never falters, but at $15.95 for 97 pages of story and no end to the journey in sight (the trio accomplishes less than 100 miles), this isn't for libraries on tight budgets. It may be just the thing, though, for larger collections where western adventures are in heavy demand. --Kay Weisman
摘录
If there was one thing Francis Tucket knew with certainty it was that death, brutal death, was close to taking them. Dawn was coming and here he was, a fifteen-year-old boy in charge of two children, walking across a sunbeaten, airless plain that seemed to be endless. Francis, Lottie and Billy had no food or water or any immediate hope of getting any, and at any moment a dozen or two of the dirt-meanest men Francis had ever seen in a world full of mean men could come riding up on them and . . . He didn't finish the thought. There was no need. Besides, in surviving Indian fights, blizzards, gun battles and thieves, he had learned the primary rule about danger. It would come if it would come. You could try to be ready for it, you could plan on it, you could even expect it, but it would come when it wanted to come. Lottie and Billy understood this rule too. He had found them sitting in a wagon on the prairie all alone. Their father had died of cholera and their wagon train had abandoned the family, afraid of disease. Lottie had been nine then, Billy six. Francis hadn't thought he and the children would stay together long--after all, he had to keep searching for his own family. He'd been separated from them over a year before, when Pawnees had kidnapped him from the wagon train on the Oregon Trail. But Francis and Lottie and Billy--well, they were used to each other. They stuck together. Unlike Francis and Jason Grimes, the one-armed mountain man. Jason Grimes had rescued Francis from the Pawnees and taught him how to survive in the West on his own. Then they'd parted ways. Until last night. Last night when Grimes had helped them to escape from the Comancheros. The Comancheros were an outlaw band, ruthless, terrifying, inhumanly tough. To escape, Grimes had had to take the packhorses Francis and Lottie and Billy had been riding and lead them off empty, hoping the Comancheros would follow his tracks westward while the three children headed north on foot in the dark of night. It was a decent plan--it was their only plan--and it seemed to be working. As Francis and the two children had moved north in the dark, they had seen the Comancheros ride past them after Mr. Grimes, tracking the horses. The Comancheros had missed the footprints of the children, partly because it was hard to see them and partly because Francis made Lottie and Billy walk in each other's footprints. He came last, brushing out the trail with a piece of mesquite behind him. But luck was the major factor in the plan. If the Comancheros caught Grimes or even got within sight of him they'd know that Francis and the children weren't with him. They'd turn and come back for the children. Children meant real money because they could be sold or traded into slavery. Francis knew that brushing out the tracks would only work in the pitch dark of night. In daylight the brush marks themselves would be easy to follow. "I'm tired." Billy stopped suddenly. "I think we've gone far enough." Francis frowned. When Francis had first met Billy, the boy wouldn't say a word. And now he'd gone from never talking at all to complaining. "If they catch us"--Lottie slapped Billy's head so hard Francis thought he heard the boy's brains rattle--"they'll skin you. They'll make a tobacco pouch out of you and let the coyotes have the rest. Now keep walking. If we don't keep moving they'll be on us like dogs, won't they, Francis? On us just like dogs . . ." Lottie loved to talk, would talk all the time if she had the chance, seemed to have been talking since Francis had found her in that wagon. Lottie would explain every little detail of every little part of every little thing she was talking about so that not a single aspect of it was missed, and she sometimes drove Francis over the edge. Now, as Billy started moving again, Francis picked up the pace, pushed them as hard as they could stand it and then harder, and Lottie didn't have breath left to speak. Dawn brought the sun and the sun brought heat. Francis and the children were bareheaded and the sun quickly went to work on them. Billy wanted to complain, especially as the morning progressed and there was no water and the sun rose higher and became hotter, but Francis drove them until Billy began to weave. Then Francis handed Lottie his rifle and, pushing her in front of him, he picked Billy up and carried him piggyback, mile after mile, then yard after yard, and finally, step after step. Lottie saw it first. "There," she said. "See the spot?" Francis was near dead with exhaustion. He had hardly slept at all for the two nights before and had been used roughly by the Comancheros in the bargain. He was close to the breaking point as he said, "What spot?" "There. No, more to the right. On the horizon. It's trees. I'm sure of it. A stand of trees." They had seen many mirages--images of trees and water that were not there. But Francis looked where she was pointing and saw it instantly. He stopped and set Billy down. The boy was asleep, and he collapsed in a heap, still sleeping. "You're right! Trees. And trees mean water." From the Hardcover edition. Excerpted from Tucket's Gold by Gary Paulsen All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.