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Judy's Reviews > The Arm of the Starfish
The Arm of the Starfish
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Judy's review
bookshelves: 20th-century-fiction, books-from-1965, young-adult, thriller
Nov 28, 2020
bookshelves: 20th-century-fiction, books-from-1965, young-adult, thriller
I have been following the books of Madeleine L'Engle all through My Big Fat Reading Project. This one is a great tale. Set in the "near future" as of 1965, filed at my library as "children's literature" because as of 1965 there was no such genre as Young Adult. However, Adam is a 17-year-old heading off for a summer job in Portugal before his freshman year at Harvard.
He intends to become a marine biologist himself. Dr O'Keefe, his prospective employer, is doing groundbreaking research on the regenerative tissues found in the arms of starfish. Adam finds himself in the middle of a battle between pharmaceutical companies for possession of O'Keefe's research.
This is YA like one rarely finds these days. No drugs, no swearing, no sex. There is a sexy girl, the daughter of one of the men who wants to steal the research for his own profit.
Was this eerie to read during the weeks different drug companies were racing to get their COVID vaccines approved? You bet it was.
I love how Madeleine L'Engle always grants her young protagonists so much intelligence and independence. In this one, Adam has to decide all on his own who to trust as well as who to kiss.
He intends to become a marine biologist himself. Dr O'Keefe, his prospective employer, is doing groundbreaking research on the regenerative tissues found in the arms of starfish. Adam finds himself in the middle of a battle between pharmaceutical companies for possession of O'Keefe's research.
This is YA like one rarely finds these days. No drugs, no swearing, no sex. There is a sexy girl, the daughter of one of the men who wants to steal the research for his own profit.
Was this eerie to read during the weeks different drug companies were racing to get their COVID vaccines approved? You bet it was.
I love how Madeleine L'Engle always grants her young protagonists so much intelligence and independence. In this one, Adam has to decide all on his own who to trust as well as who to kiss.
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Reading Progress
November 26, 2020
–
Started Reading
November 26, 2020
– Shelved
November 28, 2020
– Shelved as:
20th-century-fiction
November 28, 2020
– Shelved as:
books-from-1965
November 28, 2020
– Shelved as:
young-adult
November 28, 2020
– Shelved as:
thriller
November 28, 2020
–
Finished Reading
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Teresa
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rated it 4 stars
Dec 20, 2020 07:48PM
As a child, I didn't read this one at my library, but books like these were shelved in a section labeled Y, which I think meant Youth.
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Teresa wrote: "As a child, I didn't read this one at my library, but books like these were shelved in a section labeled Y, which I think meant Youth."I am probably older than you. At least when my mom took us weekly to the library there was just children's and adult. After I read almost everything in children's, I was so proud when I was allowed to look for books in adult! This was in the 1950s. A small public library in an old house in Princeton, NJ.
Great story. My experience of Y books was in the early 70s, but same with my mom taking us every week to a tiny library.
Teresa wrote: "Great story. My experience of Y books was in the early 70s, but same with my mom taking us every week to a tiny library."Going to the library as a kid is such a good influence! By the early 70s I was taking my own kids to the library.
Judy wrote: "Going to the library as a kid is such a good influence! By the early 70s I was taking my own kids to the library."It was my favorite thing to do. My mom wished for me to check out twice as many books so she didn't have to go an 'extra' time. I'm the oldest of 6 and she had other things to do, I guess. ;)
By the late 80s I was doing the same for my two. :)
Teresa wrote: "Judy wrote: "Going to the library as a kid is such a good influence! By the early 70s I was taking my own kids to the library."It was my favorite thing to do. My mom wished for me to check out tw..."
Yes! Pay it forward. My sons are not big readers but one is married to a big reader and the other one's kids are in the arts. Makes me happy.
