The Twelve-Fingered Boy

December 17, 2012
It’s a little bit Shawshank Redemption, a little bit X-Men, as adult author Jacobs (This Dark Earth) launches a promising trilogy about superhuman teens. Fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon is passing the time in Pulaski Juvenile Detention Center, selling candy to his fellow inmates, when he’s assigned a new roommate: Jack Graves, a small, quiet 13-year-old with 12 fingers and uncontrollable telekinetic abilities. When a stranger named Mr. Quincrux shows up, sporting nasty mental powers and an uncomfortable interest in Jack, the boys have no choice but to break out of juvie and go on the run. Attempting to stay one step ahead of Quincrux, they master Jack’s telekinesis and Shreve’s newfound telepathy, and eventually must choose between freedom and justice. While the story spins its wheels at times (parts of Jack and Shreve’s day-to-day life in juvie and on the road can drag, even with superpowers involved), and a number of questions are left to later books, the premise is sound, Shreve’s hard-edged narrative voice is strong, and Jacobs skillfully builds tension and mystery throughout. Ages 14–up. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

February 1, 2013

Gr 8-10-Though basically a good kid, 15-year-old Shreve Cannon is serving two years in an Arkansas juvenile detention center for stealing. His survival strategies of dealing candy and being sarcastic add humor to this suspenseful novel. When 13-year-old Jack Graves becomes his new roommate, Shreve concludes that Jack is different for more than just his additional fingers. It is revealed during an interview with the mysterious Mr. Quincrux that when Jack gets scared or angry, he is able to send out a violent wave of energy. After a particularly brutal incident, the teens decide to break out of the center. Shreve discovers that he has acquired the ability to manipulate others' minds, a skill that comes in handy for survival on the road as he and Jack try to evade Quincrux and his creepy "watchers." They must also commit minor offenses, which forces them to question the ambiguity often associated with morality (Is it okay to invade someone's mind if it means it will save someone else's life?). Shreve is an admirable, wise protagonist. He recognizes that pain is simply a part of life, and that despite his rough upbringing, he will survive. Fans of Alexander Gordon Smith's "Escape from Furnace" series (Farrar) will enjoy the fast-paced paranormal twists this novel offers, and the ending will leave them wanting more.-Sherry J. Mills, Hazelwood East High School, St. Louis, MO

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2013
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* At long last, here is a superhero story for the rest of us. Streetwise Shreve, 15, is serving a two-year stint in juvie, but at least his sidelinedealing candykeeps things interesting. Enter new roommate Jack, a haunted 13-year-old (a titty-baby in juvie terms) rumored to have killed his parents and put five kids into the hospital. Jack has 12 fingers. That's weird. Even weirder? When angered, he can go explodey psychically hurl people across the room. No wonder other parties are, shall we say, interested. Mr. Quincrux, an ominously bland fellow in a black suit, arrives to mentally invade the minds of Jack and Shreve and in the process accidentally lends Shreve a similar ability. What follows is miles away from the superhero battles you're expecting. After the two boys bust out, they live the desperate existence of itinerate thieves as they struggle to control superpowers fueled by pain. Jacobs' storytelling has the effortless velocity of early Dean Koontz, and his prose is textured with hard-boiled grit: each kid's supernatural flexing causes nosebleeds and vomiting, not to mention the realistic mangling of innocent people. An expertly spiced stew of attitude, humor, horror, and griefand with a movie-ready plot to boot. Sequels? Probably. Let's make that hopefully.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2013
"It's a monster of a world" for fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon, incarcerated in Casimir Pulaski Juvenile Detention Center for Boys: "not quite prison. Not quite a Hilton." Words are Shreve's thing -- how he sells contraband candy, how he survives in a sometimes brutal world. But words fail him when he's assigned a new roommate, Jack Graves -- "slight, pale, and still," with large brown eyes, a dead voice, and twelve fingers, six on each hand. It turns out that Jack has special powers that resulted in the hospitalization of five kids at his previous foster home. When the mysterious Quincrux and his witchy counterpart Ilsa begin stalking Shreve and Jack, Jack's powers are called upon, forcing the boys to make an explosive escape. As the fugitives wander from state to state, the narrative also meanders, but readers will enjoy this trilogy debut, a wild and riveting tale full of allusions to fairy tales, movies, and comic book heroes -- including the witch, the wolf at the door, the Hulk, Jack Sprat, Godzilla, Spiderman, and Hansel and Gretel, all contributing a mythic scale to the whole affair. Polydactyl heroes are rare in children's literature, and so are novels like this that make the fantastical utterly believable. dean schneider

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)