The dead body found in the Chemanga River has nothing to do with Todd. He’s been busy making beds at the family motel and writing alien stories to entertain his friends. Sure, a murder is big news, but what would reallyinterest him? A paying job and a story line free of UFOs and poop jokes. And then he meets Rat.Just a little older than Todd, Rat’s already been to Vietnam and back. He’s got a tattoo and a messed-up family life. And when he offers Todd a gig at the drive-in theater, Todd takes it. After all, it pays actual money. But hanging out with Rat leads to a host of strange experiences and perplexing questions. More and more, that corpse from the river is on Todd’s mind, and no matter how he shifts the pieces around, Rat is always part of the puzzle. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In this dark and consistently gripping mystery-Arnold's (Parts) first foray into YA territory-14-year-old Todd Anthony whets readers' appetites with "a list of possible first lines," beginning with "A dead guy washed up from the river." Set in upstate New York during the Vietnam War, Todd works at his parents' motel and spends his school days writing stories to entertain his friends. One day while biking home, he encounters a small dog; when Todd picks it up, it bites him and darts into the road where it is hit by a cement truck. He is forced to kill it-it's been too gravely wounded-and he is subsequently devastated. Todd keeps his actions secret; he writes about the incident for a school assignment, but is unable to turn it in. "I pull her closer. Feel a tiny lick on my wrist. I'm crying. Shaking. I never knew what crying really was." While searching for the dog's owner, Todd meets Rat, a tattooed and evasive veteran only a few years older than Todd, who offers him a job at the local movie drive-in. Meanwhile, a dead body has been discovered in the nearby river and Todd begins to suspect that Rat is involved on some level. Arnold amply demonstrates his ability to write for an older crowd, spinning a suspenseful yarn with a dizzying climax that sweeps Todd off his feet-both literally and emotionally-and will likely do the same to readers. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 6-10-Despite a slow start, this is a solid story set in the early 1970s, with a likable main character and a thrilling climax. Readers will sympathize with Todd, a creative, sensitive boy who helps his parents run a motel in upstate New York and dreams of becoming a writer. When he crosses paths with Rat, a moody young Vietnam veteran, he gets a job at the drive-in theater where Rat works, and finds himself fascinated by the young man, who is compelling but possibly dangerous. Todd begins to wonder if his new friend might have something to do with the unidentified body pulled out of the river. However, the mystery builds quietly as other elements take precedence, including Todd's encounter with an abandoned puppy and the subsequent rabies shots he must endure, his resentment over chores at the motel, his struggles to write a story for English class, and his grandmother's deteriorating mental condition. When the river floods, both Todd and Rat are caught up in the disaster, and the truth comes out at last. The final chapters are riveting, but readers hoping for a fast-paced mystery might be disappointed by the leisurely unfolding of events up to that point. More patient readers will enjoy the details of small-town life and identify with Todd's preoccupations and yearnings.-Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Fourteen-year-old Todd entertains his classmates with gross-out tales, concocting crude metaphors for diarrhea (sewer stew ), but parallels with Arnold's irreverent picture books ( Parts, 2004) end there. Goofy boyhood preoccupations fade early in this ambitious first novel, in which Todd's friendship with Rat, a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, awakens the adolescent to ethical ambiguities and often-cruel realities, and pushes his writing hobby in new directions. As details about Rat's background emerge, and incidents suggest he may fit the ticking time bomb psycho profile of a Vietnam vet, Todd reluctantly begins to trace links between his friend and an unsolved murder. The novel's slow, introspective first half may lose some readers, and there are too many subplots, including a catastrophic flood that feels abruptly introduced and unnecessarily sensational. Even so, Arnold is an impressively adept writer; especially strong is his portrayal of Rat, who keeps readers on the knife's edge between sympathy and mistrust and whose enigmatic persona lends as much credence to the book's classification as a mystery as its more traditional gumshoe elements. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2007 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.