Book Description
for Still Life by Derek Kirk Kim and Les McClaine
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
In volume two of the Tune series, Andy Go is now on the planet Praxis in his zoo cage, which is a replica of his parents' home with one wall glassed in for visitors. Five hundred cable channels and his favorite foods on a tray almost compensate for the lack of bathroom privacy, until Andy learns that the contract he signed was not for a single year, but for the rest of his life, with no time off. Conversations through an air vent with Mo, the occupant of the adjacent cage, fill in the details of zoo life on Praxis and reveal the plan to bring a human female into Andy's habitat in the hopes that mating rituals can be observed. Andy begs to be reunited with Yumi, his unconsummated art school crush. The alien Dash, fascinated by the concept of art (it's been outlawed on Praxis for generations), agrees to Andy's request on the condition that he will teach her to draw. The plan backfires when the Yumi who shows up is from an alternative universe, one in which she and Andy have been in a relationship and where she is furious at him for cheating on her. Despite her anger, this Yumi, an aspiring journalist, sees the opportunity for the story that could ensure her career and she intends to complete the necessary research before making her escape back to earth. A surprise ending and lots of humor-much of it scatological-advance hapless Korean American Andy's ongoing tale. (Age 16 and older)
CCBC Choices 2014. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2014. Used with permission.