Paperback edition $15 plus postage $3.00
eBook available from Amazon
and all online retailers. |
'KICK-ASS' TYLER by Clancy Tucker
Sam Tyler is a feisty 14 year-old girl who lives in a seaside town, and becomes rebellious after the death of her father. Her mother has remarried and Sam conflicts with her stepfather, Max.
When a classmate, Zoran Cepnic, is abducted, Sam forms a committee to find him, and the entire school is fired-up to help. Her stepfather helps Sam and their relationship blossoms. Sam does some investigations of her own, wags school to visit Zoran’s parents, and sneaks out at night and finds Zoran’s watch at a bus stop where he was abducted. Excited, Sam rings the police and forms a good friendship with the leading detective. Sam is interviewed on national television by a famous broadcaster, Martha Benson. The same day, she is approached by a weird guy on the beach. The next evening, she is also abducted and ends up in an isolated farmhouse with Zoran. He’s alive! Sam and Zoran attempt to escape by removing floorboards, but are stopped by their abductor. Will they escape? How will the police find them? |
KICK-ASS REVIEW – JACK WHITE
Kick-Ass Tyler is another ripping yarn from Clancy Tucker. Like PA Joe’s Place, Gunnedah Hero and others, Kick-Ass is an easy read and hard to put down once started. Sam Tyler (Kick-Ass) is a feisty young teenage girl who's had a hard life, having lost her dad way too early for any kid. To survive that wound and mask the pain, Sam's response was to be tough and a bit rebellious, with a good dash of love and empathy, common sense and wisdom beyond her years, and the kind of guts we all admire - or definitely should! She mobilises her school mates and community members to help police locate a school mate who's been abducted. Sam is instrumental in rescuing her friend and, in the process, gets herself into all sorts of bother. It's a pleasure to observe her skills and abilities - that any girl her age can develop - watch her character mature, her toughness soften into the quality of ''strength'', and her relationship with her step-dad and some authority figures warm and grow. This is a book from which young teenage girls, especially, would benefit. Having said that, I am a male and closer to 70 than 60, and I was warmed and encouraged by the authentic humanity of the leading characters, and the values they espoused and demonstrated. And if, as you read K-A, you cry at times, you are a human being! Well done, Clancy. Thanks for the joy! Jack White Author, musician, pilot, yachtsman, farmer and psychotherapist. |
Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis
Another fantastic piece of work by Clancy Tucker, ‘Kick-Ass’ Tyler is Book 1 in a series about a gutsy fourteen year-old girl called Sam Tyler. She is smart in mind and mouth, but is still grieving for her father who was killed two years ago. This grief won’t allow her to accept Max, who has filled her dad’s place. When her school mate Zoran is kidnapped and held to ransom, Sam’s life changes drastically. Sam now needs Max’s help. Her investigation into the missing boy’s life gives her a sense of purpose. It fires her up. The kidnapping gives birth to a new relationship between Sam and Max. The shift in Sam’s character is brilliantly built up. Together with her friends Neve, Tina and Jason, Sam creates a committee to help the police find Zoran. This leads to their community being brought together by the school children to keep the search alive and vivid in people’s minds, and find the missing boy. The group also discover inside themselves, hidden strengths that give meaning to their life. Never one to shirk the hard issues, Clancy Tucker has again addressed powerful themes. The main one here is missing children. It is tied to threads on teen suicide, bullying and its lasting effects, domestic violence, grief and loss. This story is fast-paced and full of mystery and as always, comes with strong messages full of optimism and hope. It is aimed at the 8-80 age group and I can’t wait for Book 2! |