From Booklist
Gr. 7-10. Even readers who don't like sf will be drawn to a hero who has a sense of humor about his serious mission. In Zimbabwe in the year 2194, the military ruler's 13-year-old son and his younger brother and sister leave their technologically overcontrolled home and find themselves on a series of perilous adventures. Tendai and his siblings encounter mile-high buildings and other miracles of scientific advance; they also find fetid slums and toxic waste dumps. As they're kidnapped by gangsters, forced to slave in a plastic mine, and accused of witchcraft, they're pursued by mutant detectives, who are both bumbling and sensitive and who always seem to be just one step behind rescuing the children. In the best section, the siblings find themselves in a traditional Shona village that at first seems idyllic but turns out to also encompass fierce sexism, ignorance, and disease. Throughout the story, it's the thrilling adventure that will grab readers, who will also like the comic, tender characterizations, not only of the brave, defiant trio and the absurd detectives, but also of nearly every one the kids meet, from street gangsters and spiritual healers to the English tribespeople with their weird customs. Tendai's spiritual coming-of-age is the least interesting part of the novel, but teens will like this teenager with "a hot line to the spirit world." Hazel Rochman


From Kirkus Reviews
An author who lived for years in Africa follows a comic, well-received first novel set in present-day Mozambique (Do You Know Me, 1993) with this marvelous odyssey across Zimbabwe 200 years in the future. Tendai, 13, his sister Rita, and their little brother Kuda escape their luxurious home to explore their perilous city; Tendai's immediate aim is earning a scouting badge, but his need to prove himself--as his protective father, Chief of Security Masika, hasn't allowed him to do--is also compelling. Exploring seamy ``Cow's Guts,'' these innocents are snapped up by the vast ``She Elephant'' who presides over the mines in Dead Man's Vlei, where society's dregs scavenge toxic waste for now-rare plastics. Escaping, they find their way to the walled enclave of Resthaven, where traditional tribal ways are preserved, bad with good (``You can't yank out part of the pattern and not damage the rest''); and then to a treacherous old Englishwoman. Meanwhile, the three are tracked by three eponymous detectives, whose folkloric talents are ascribed to the effects of a toxic environment. Weaving African tribal language and lore (notes and glossary appended) into a rich tapestry featuring a witty projection of the future, a score of vividly realized characters, and a nonstop adventure culminating in a denouement that's at once taut, comic, and touching, Farmer has created a splendidly imaginative fantasy, just right to pair with Lowry's darker vision of control and freedom (The Giver, 1993). (Fiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
This is Zimbabwe, and the year is 2194. This is Africa of the future, and General Matsika's world. The general is a stern man; he has had to be. It has been his iron will and unbreakable resolve that have saved Zimbabwe. Amadeus Matsika is Chief of Security for the Land of Zimbabwe and he carries the weight and responsibility for the safety of 10 million citizens. He has saved his country from the enemies within -- the gangs, hoodlums, and thieves -- and also the enemies at the border, the Gondwannans. He has seen the evils of crime and war, and he's determined to fight the chaos with order. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans...

The general has three children, and most of their young lives have been spent in the family compound. They have been safe, and their lives have been very dull. Kuda, the youngest, is the family's little lion-hearted warrior. Rita, the middle child, is strong-willed and impetuous. Tendai, the eldest son, has lived both in his father's shadow and with the fear that he will never meet his father's high expectations. Tendai needs an explorer's badge to become an Eagle Scout, and he can get one by walking across the city -- an act their father would never permit. The children have never been out in the real world, unprotected and alone, before. But they decide they need an adventure, so they trick their way out, and the excitement begins!

The children face danger and adventure in the underbelly of the city. They are kidnapped, enslaved, and chased. But at every turn the children overcome obstacles and the evil plans of their tormentors with their wits and great courage, and a boy finds the hero in himself. I've rarely read such an empowering story. (James Killen)

ANNOTATION

In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The year is 2194, and Tendai, his brother, and his sister -- the children of Zimbabwei's chief of security -- have escaped from their father's estate to explore the dangerous city of Harare. The Ear, the Eye and the Arm was a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Notable Children's Book, a BCCB Blue Ribbon Book, and received a Golden Kite Award, and a Parents' Choice Award. It received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly and The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Picking up where she left off in her highly successful debut, Do You Know Me , Farmer uses her knowledge of Africa to imagine a city in 23rd-century Zimbabwe, combining old traditions and speculative technology with delightfully entertaining results. In search of adventure, 13-year-old Tendai, his sister Rita and younger brother Kuda, the sheltered offspring of a maniacally rigid military general, break out of the family compound. The three are promptly kidnapped by the monstrous She Elephant, an ogre who lords over an abandoned toxic waste dump and forces its denizens to mine obsolete plastic products. They finally escape, but are captured anew and imprisoned in Resthaven, a cloistered community where the ancient African spiritual and farming traditions are practiced to the exclusion of all things modern. Meanwhile, the beleaguered general hires the Ear, the Eye and the Arm, three decidedly odd detectives who take advantage of their hyperdeveloped senses and features (the result of a nuclear accident) to track down the children. The madcap game of chase and escape clips along as the author plies her playful, sly sense of humor on a wonderfully silly cast of secondary characters, spirits and Jetsonian gadgets. This tale overflows with wise insights, lessons and observations about the ties between heritage and family. Farmer is emerging as one of the best and brightest authors for the YA audience. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

Set in the future in Zimbabwe, Tendai and her siblings are kidnapped off the streets of Harare. Hot on their trail are three unusual detectives each with a unique ability-hearing, sight, and insight. A fast paced, adventure with lots of suspense and plot twists to keep readers fully engrossed, this heroic myth based on the Shona culture is hard to put down. A Newbery Honor Book.

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-Set in Zimbabwe in 2194, this sci-fi/fantasy combines a coming-of-age quest with its attendant dangers and rewards and an interweaving of elements from African mythology. Tendai, 13; his younger sister, Rita; and preschool brother, Kuda, are children of Matsika, their country's Chief of Security. Frustrated by their choreographed existence, they attempt a cross-city trip that will fulfill requirements for a Scouting merit badge in exploring. They little realize the opportunity this unchaperoned escapade will afford their father's enemies, and find themselves abducted soon after their trip begins. Prisoners of the ``She Elephant,'' so-called queen of a toxic dump known as the Dead Man's Vlei, the children discover they are not to be ransomed, but to be worked and then sold to a terrorist group called The Masks, deadly and spirit-damning. Matsika calls in ``The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm Detective Agency,'' whose three agents each have a special power to aid in their search for the captives. They are steps behind as the children escape from one dire situation to another. Ultimately, the Masks are unveiled and destroyed, and the family is reunited. Rich in setting, the story is as complex as a weaver's kente pattern, as symbolic as an eijiri figure, as sophisticated as a Benin bronze. Demanding and intricate, but often convoluted, it will be rewarding to readers willing to travel beyond everyday places and to work to untangle its many strands.-Patricia Manning, Eastchester Public Library, NY

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