[.ca] Sniper (ISBN 0380711931)

Utterly disappointing:
I read "Sniper" a few years back, and I must say that it was terribly disappointing. By the time I had finished reading the book, it seemed as if I haden't been reading it for very long... not because it was engrossing or interesting, but because it was devoid of real content. Young adults would be advised to read "The Cay" and skip "Sniper".

Sniper:
Book Review Sniper is another intense novel by Theodore Taylor. \oThis is his\c another suspenseful masterpiece that is sure to be enjoyed by readers. Sniper tells a story of a young fifteen year old, Benjamin Jepson, who's in charge of his family's lion preserve in Los Coyotes, California. Everything seems fine until utter chaos breaks out. In the middle of the night, a sniper lurks around waiting to kill. This event leads Ben on an epic adventure to a surprising twist at the end. This creative contains colorful language and only has minor flaws. For one, at times the story seems to drag on and on, without many details or sensory images. However, this novel is still a great choice for all of you young detectives out there. (...) Get off your chair and buy it today! You won't be sorry.

Sniper:
"In the dead of night, a killer stalks his prey... and never misses." Sniper, by Theodore Taylor, the bestselling author of, The Cay, uses this phrase to describe Ben Jepson's fate. Ben, a 15 year old, is left alone in a wildcat park in southern California, while his parents are in the Serengeti in Africa. He has no way of contacting them. It is the middle of the summer and there is a sniper on the loose. Ben, a "mediocre" teenager, thinks of his past as he tries to recover from the loss of his favorite cats. He has figured out that the sniper is using a nightscope. Only two people he knows has one. Theodore Taylor uses metaphors, and also uses vivid descriptions. For example, "Jessica is looking out across the undulating field of brown grass, paying no attention to human talk or tone of voice." Some strong points of the book are the thought-provoking sensory images. The greusome, yet interesting scenes shown, are almost encouraging you to think. Although one would most likely expect to paint pictures, this thriller paints pictures that will leave you ensconced in ideas, thoughts, and feelings all at once. For example, the author talks about a time when a ferocious Siberian tiger scalps Ben's mother. This is a very descriptive scene. Some weak points in the novel are that some of the descriptions are dull and some pictures are hard to paint in your mind. We recommend this novel to animal lovers, people who love suspense, and love to be on the edge of their seat, ages 10 and up. This sophisticated mystery is about animals. Sniper contains above-grade-level language. This mystery is one of the best you'll ever read. How will Ben survive? Is he a target too?

Sniper is a FABULOUS book!:
"As if he was jabbed with a needle, Ben woke up in a rush to find the sisters dead outside." Sniper, by award winning author Theodore Taylor, is a fantastic book. Ben Jepson lives on a California nature preserve. Everyday Ben wakes up to large cats roaring. Ben is devoted and very caring towards the animals. He is also loving towards a lion named Rocky whom he brought up from a cub. Ben gets really angry after a sniper kills four of his favorite lions. One night, Ben goes after the Sniper after he attempted to shoot Ben. Sniper has good language and strong verbs. You won't want to put down the book. This book is gripping. There are only a few weak points. There are a few curses and the story gets boring at some points. Also the characters go off topic, which makes the book hard to follow. Theodore Taylor used plenty of dialogue. He also uses sensory images, for example, " She was a tall angular woman, with milk- white hair..." Another point of author's style is that he uses simple languagE, for example, " Felling a ticking in his throat, hearing his voice all wound up." The message of this book is that you don't know what you have until you loose it, because Ben always took his problems out on his lions. But then when they got killed he took care of the other one's better. We would recommend this book to boys and girls in sixth and seventh grade. The girls would probably like the aanimals, and the boys would like the guns. We would recommend this to twelve year olds because of the shooting aspect.

Lions and Tigers and ......BANG!!!.........Oh My:
Ben is left in charge of a big cat refuge/preserve in California while his parents are off on safari in Africa. Ben is a teen with usual teen anxieties and now he has to run a preserve that the neighbors resent, supervise a crew of illegal aliens, and handle a few dozen big cats; full grown lions, tigers, panthers and a house cheetah. Since that's not enough stress for a teenager the author throws in a sniper, an unknown killer who is picking off the animals at night. I read this book to be able to quiz my eleven year old as he read it and to be honest the book is pretty good. The characters are likeable and not saccharine, the boy...Ben...has realistic conflicts, and the animals seem to be realistically depicted. My eleven year old enjoyed the book, my thirteen year old read a few chapters and said he liked it. My only critism is that the resolution comes out of the blue. The development of the identity of the culprit seems to happen abruptly in the last few chapters. There are no clues early on that foreshadow the ending. Real life may be that way but it does not make for a satisfactory ending in a novel. That aside I would recommend it for young readers, challenging for an eleven year old, easy for a thirteen year old.