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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2010, 368 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2012, 352 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Tamara Ellis Smith
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Train.
Car.
Plane.
Boat.
Feet.
He'll get there.
Won't he?
Wait
Wait a minute.
Was the - had the train just moved?
Ry turned his head to look at it straight on, but it sat on the tracks, as still as the lumpy brown hill he was climbing. As still as the grass that baked in gentle swells as far as he could see and the air in the empty blue sky.
He must have imagined it. Nothing had moved. Everything was the same.
But there it was again. Was it because he blinked? Maybe it was the water in his eyes; it had wobbled up his vision.
He picked out a post alongside the tracks, directly below the line where the logo on the train changed from red to blue. As he watched, the red and the blue shifted almost imperceptibly to the right above the post. Then perceptibly. The train was moving.
"Wait," Ry said aloud.
Because it wasn't supposed to move yet. The conductor had said - the conductor had said forty minutes. Ry was supposed to be on the train. After a full second of hesitation, he went scrambling down the steep rubbled face of the hill. ...
Yes. Ry gets there. By train, car, plane, boat and feet. But also, truly, he gets there by head, heart, and whole body - by connecting with Del, himself and ultimately the world around him...continued
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(Reviewed by Tamara Ellis Smith).
While journeying to find his parents, Ry took a train, a car, a plane and a boat. Four separate vehicles. But what if he could have simply taken one? What if there were such a vehicle? One that could operate on land, water and in the air?
There is! Check out the Ramphos!
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While it looks just like something slightly crazy Del would have patch-worked together and you would skeptically (and warily) wonder if it would crash into a million pieces the minute you started the engine, the Ramphos, made in Italy, is an ingenious, amphibious flying vehicle. It looks like a hang-glider attached to a boat with retractable wheels, and can take off and land on land or water. It uses standard car gasoline or ...
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