Teen Fiction - School, Teen Fiction - Romance & Friendship

Hidden Talents

Name: Hidden Talents
Author: David Lubar
ISBN: 9780765342652

by David Lubar

Write a review

Overview

American Library Association "Best Books for Young Adults"

American Library Association "Quick Picks for Young Adults"

Martin Anderson and his friends don't like being called losers. But they've been called that for so long even they start to believe it. Until Martin makes an incredible discovery: each of his friends has a special hidden talent.

Edgeview Alternative School was supposed to be end of the road. But for Martin and his friends, it just might be a new beginning.

When thirteen-year-old Martin arrives at an alternative school for misfits and problem students, he falls in with a group of boys with psychic powers and discovers something surprising about himself.

Synopsis

American Library Association "Best Books for Young Adults"

American Library Association "Quick Picks for Young Adults"

Edgeview Alternative School was supposed to be end of the road. But for Martin and his friends, it just might be a new beginning.

Publishers Weekly

After being expelled from any number of schools, 13-year-old Martin winds up at Edgeview, a publicly funded boarding school and a last-chance alternative. Martin, who narrates, doesn't seem like a delinquent, but he just can't stop himself from taunting his teachers. By the end of his first day he has infuriated the whole staff. Of the kids, Bloodbath is a terror, as are his cronies, but Martin's roommate, "Torchie," is nice enough, although he constantly denies starting the fires that flare up wherever he goes. The other boys Martin gets to know similarly refuse to own up to the particular behavior that landed them at Edgeview. Readers expecting a typical resolution, wherein the boys accept responsibility for their misdeeds, are in for a surprise. Martin's buddies aren't liars and troublemakers at all; unbeknownst even to themselves, they're endowed with paranormal powers: Cheater is telepathic, Trash is telekinetic, Flinch is clairvoyant, etc. Led by Martin, who finally discovers his own hidden talent, the six use their abilities to save Edgeview from Bloodbath and his gang's attempts to sabotage a state inspection. The stakes are a little suspect (would these boys really develop such passionate school spirit?), but on the whole Lubar (Kidzilla) serves up great fun, along with an insight or two for those whose powers are only too human. Ages 12-up. (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, David Lubar

David Lubar is the acclaimed author of several novels for young people, including Hidden Talents, an ALA Best Books for Young Adults and an ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adults selection, and In the Land of the Lawn Weenies and Other Misadventures, a collection of short stories. He lives with his wife and daughter in Pennsylvania.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

From the Publisher

"Lubar's first novel is wondrously surprising, playful, and heartwarming. A promising new author."—VOYA (5Q 4P)

"A good bet for readers who like offbeat fiction. The dialogue is right on target with plenty of humor."—Booklist

"Sure to be popular."—Kliatt

"Lubar serves up great fun, along with an insight or two for those whose powers are only too human."—Publishers Weekly

"I have never had a class so completely mesmerized by a book. The characters are witty, intelligent, genuine, and enchanting."—Mia Moen, 4th Grade Teacher Columbia Elementary School Annandale, Virginia.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

After being expelled from any number of schools, 13-year-old Martin winds up at Edgeview, a publicly funded boarding school and a last-chance alternative. Martin, who narrates, doesn't seem like a delinquent, but he just can't stop himself from taunting his teachers. By the end of his first day he has infuriated the whole staff. Of the kids, Bloodbath is a terror, as are his cronies, but Martin's roommate, "Torchie," is nice enough, although he constantly denies starting the fires that flare up wherever he goes. The other boys Martin gets to know similarly refuse to own up to the particular behavior that landed them at Edgeview. Readers expecting a typical resolution, wherein the boys accept responsibility for their misdeeds, are in for a surprise. Martin's buddies aren't liars and troublemakers at all; unbeknownst even to themselves, they're endowed with paranormal powers: Cheater is telepathic, Trash is telekinetic, Flinch is clairvoyant, etc. Led by Martin, who finally discovers his own hidden talent, the six use their abilities to save Edgeview from Bloodbath and his gang's attempts to sabotage a state inspection. The stakes are a little suspect would these boys really develop such passionate school spirit?, but on the whole Lubar Kidzilla serves up great fun, along with an insight or two for those whose powers are only too human. Ages 12-up. June Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

Martin has a bit of difficulty respecting authority, so much so that the court sends him to the Edgeview Alternative School, a place full of teenage misfits wreaking havoc among themselves. There is only one chance to get out, to get sent back home; he quickly blows that opportunity. Now he must navigate his days among such interesting personalities as Torch, Cheater, Flinch, Lucky, Trash, Lip and Bloodbath along with a peculiar menagerie of teachers. Lubar has crafted a believable tale set in a run-down school in a town where the school and its residents are not welcome. Characters are well-defined and exhibit a multitude of traits that come together in an exciting and unexpected way to unite the tempestuous rebel-rousers. As they discover their hidden talents (psychic powers) and learn to use them to their advantage, the solitary freaks become a confident and trusting group looking to a future for more than themselves. 1999, Tor Books, Ages 11 up, $16.95. Reviewer: Mary Sue Preissner

Library Journal

Gr 6-8-Edgeview Alternative School represents the end of the line for Martin Anderson. At 13, he's been kicked out of every school in his district, and feels more than a little skeptical about making a new start in this lonely, gray place. Still, he begins to establish tentative friendships with his pyromaniac roommate, Torchie, and a few of the other kids. They band together to form some small wall of protection against the school's most disturbed bully, Lester Bloodbath. Soon, Martin suspects that his friends are far more than ordinary misfits, and he confronts them with his theories about their psychic powers. His excitement in his discovery turns to disappointment when they turn against him out of fear of being labeled freaks. Fortunately, a class science experiment finally gives Martin the evidence he needs to persuade his friends of their talents. He coaches them as they learn to control their powers and leads them as they face their greatest challenge: a battle with Bloodbath that will decide the fate of the school. This plot is the stuff of most teenagers dreams-the discovery that you and your friends have superpowers. Unfortunately, the story suffers from a frustratingly slow pace and an awkward writing style that alternates between Martin's first-person narrative and letters, memos, and brief boxes of dialogue. Also, the characters lack detail and definition. Stephanie Tolan's Welcome to the Ark (Morrow, 1996) is a darker, but more satisfying tale of extrasensory abilities.-Kelly P. Kingrey, Sabine Parish Library, Many, LA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An eighth grader discovers five schoolmates with psychic powers in this amateurish effort from Lubar. Martin, who was expelled from every other junior high in six counties for mouthing off, is consigned to prison-like Edgeview Alternative School, along with other violent or nerdy teens deemed hopeless misfits. While trying to avoid both the ready fists of hulking bully Lester Bloodbath and the shock therapy meted out by Principal Davis, he meets Torchy, who can start fires without matches or lighters, Cheater Woo, whose test answers are always identical to someone else's, and several others with odd, unconscious talents. Interspersing Martin's tediously self-analytical narrative with flat attempts at humor, trite student essays, repetitive memos to faculty, and mawkish letters from home, Lugar draws the tale to a paradoxical climax in which the self-styled "psi five" scuttle Bloodbath's plot to close the school down, but then do their best to earn releases. After realizing that he is psychic, able to read people's deepest fears and hopes, Martin abruptly acquires a sense of responsibility and resolves never to abuse his talent. Padded with aimless subplots and earnest efforts to drum up sympathy for the one-dimensional cast's brutal bullies and ineffectual teachers, this contrived story is a weak alternative to Stephanie Tolan's Welcome to the Ark (1996) or Willo Davis Roberts's The Girl with the Silver Eyes (1980). (Fiction. 12-15)