The prince of Venice Beach
Record details
- ISBN: 9780316230483 (hardcover)
- ISBN: 0316230480 (hardcover)
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Physical Description:
print
233 pages : map ; 22 cm - Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2014.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Teenage boys -- Juvenile fiction Runaways -- Juvenile fiction Homeless persons -- Juvenile fiction Private investigators -- Juvenile fiction Venice (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Juvenile fiction |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Prince Rupert Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prince Rupert Library | J Nels (Text) | 33294001901479 | Juvenile Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2014 June #1
Robert "Cali" Callahan is a 17-year-old runaway living on the streets of Venice Beach, surfing, playing basketball, and spending his nights in the tree house of a well-meaning local woman. Cali has a reputation of being the guy who can find anyone for a little cash, so when he is approached to help locate Reese Abernathy, the daughter of a wealthy Silicone Valley financier, he accepts, hoping to turn his side business into a real detective agency. Instead, Reese finds Cali, and after hearing her story, Cali begins to question both the motives of the people trying to find her and his own for accepting the offer. Cali is a dispassionate narrator whose determination to do the right thing without being sure what it is reveals a sensitive, street-smart kid who is, nonetheless, heartbreakingly naive. In a briskly paced novel with a noir sensibilty, Nelson (Recovery Road, 2011) exposes the dangerous reality of life on the streets without overdramatization or sentimentality. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2014 June
Dark realities of both legitimate and underground worldsSet on the beaches and back alleys of Los Angeles, The Prince of Venice Beach is the tale of a homeless runaway who lives an easy life off the gridâuntil his only means of income turns morally complex.
Seventeen-year-old Robert "Cali" Callahan ran away from an endless cycle of foster homes when he turned 14. Over the years, he has remained under the radar while learning about the people, locales and vibes of Venice Beach, as well as offering his help to anyone who needs it. So when a private investigator shows up at his regular pickup basketball game, Cali plays it cool enough to land a well-paying gig helping the PI find another runaway in the area. Cali goes on to get two more PI jobs, but he ends up falling for the subject of his third searchâthe mysterious, elusive Reese Abernathy. Cali wants to help Reese, but with rumors swirling about her mental instability and the true cause of her mother's death, he faces tough decisions in the face of ethical ambiguity.
The Prince of Venice Beach reveals the savagery and humanity of life on the streets, and provides insights into homelessness that few are able to capture.
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This article was originally published in the June 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.
Copyright 2012 BookPage Reviews. - Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2014 Fall
Seventeen-year-old Robert "Cali" Callahan has a knack for finding missing people. He's recruited to find missing girl Reese, but he falls for her instead, and ultimately doesn't know whether he should trust her version of the truth or her father's. Nelson vividly captures the energy of the Venice Beach community, both the physical setting and the eclectic characters that populate it. - Horn Book Magazine Reviews : Horn Book Magazine Reviews 2014 #4
Seventeen-year-old Robert "Cali" Callahan ran away from a string of difficult foster family situations in Omaha to make a new life in Venice Beach, but he knows that living the life of a homeless surfer bum isn't a long-term solution. Fortunately, he has a knack for finding missing people. He's already helped the police find one missing teen, and when he helps find two more in quick succession, he begins to wonder if he might not be cut out for a career as a private investigator. Cali's next case, however, shows him just how ethically murky the whole business can be. He's recruited to find missing girl Reese, but he falls for her instead, and ultimately doesn't know whether he should trust her version of the truth or her father's. Nelson vividly captures the energy of the beach community, both in his depiction of the physical setting and his creation of the eclectic cast of characters that populates it. Two people in particular -- Hope, an older woman who allows Cali to live in he Copyright 2014 Horn Book Magazine. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2014 May #1
A teenage beach bum turns private eye in this unexpectedly sweet story about friendship and loss from the author of Paranoid Park (2006).Robert "Cali" Callahan ran away from his Nebraska foster home when he was 14. Now 17, he lives in a kind hippie's backyard treehouse in Venice Beach, Calif., roams the boardwalk on his skateboard, plays basketball and tries to avoid trouble. When he is asked by a frustrated private investigator to locate another runaway, Cali discovers a natural talent for finding people. At first he's thrilled to be earning money for nothing more than making a few innocent inquiries. But when Cali agrees to help find a wealthy missing girl named Reese Abernathy, he starts questioning the motivations of the people who are hiring him and finds himself in the middle of a dangerous game of cat and mouse. When Cali ultimately sides with his target instead of his client, the results are tragic and leave him wondering if he made the right decision. Nelson's spare style and nuanced portrayal of street kids is strongly reminiscent of the classic work of S.E. Hinton. The gritty beach setting, compelling cast of sensitively drawn secondary characters and spot-on dialogue elevate the story beyond that of a typical genre mystery.The ending hints at Cali's willingness to take on fresh cases, and readers can only hope that a new teenage private detective series is in the works. (Mystery. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus 2014 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2014 March #5
Nelson (Recovery Road) combines a hardboiled first-person narrative and a languid Southern California setting to establish a seductive surf noir atmosphere in the story of Robert "Cali" Callahan, a 17-year-old runaway who's testing out a potential career as a private investigator on the streets of Venice Beach. Cali's doing pretty well for himself: he has a rent-free treehouse to sleep in, is generally well-liked by the other denizens of the boardwalk, and can hold his own on Venice's infamous streetball courts. When Cali starts getting quiet offers to track down persons of interest (a runaway kid here, a transient there), he's thrilled by his early successes, but learns that not knowing where the money is coming from puts him on ethically murky ground. Cali is smart, perceptive, and fairly aware of his own shortcomings, and his strong desire to help drives this moody, fast-moving novel. Although secondary characters (especially the women in Cali's life) aren't quite as fully developed as he is, Cali's romantic entanglements only add to his confusion over how to do the right thing. Ages 12âup. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House. (June)
[Page ]. Copyright 2014 PWxyz LLC - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2014 May
Gr 7 UpâRobert Callahan is a 17-year-old runaway. After his father's abandonment and his mother's accidental death early on, he has experienced life as a foster child, being shuttled from one family to the next. Robert finally takes control of his destiny and escapes the harshness of Omaha, Nebraska's social service system by running away to the streets of Venice Beach, California. He's a little luckier than most runawaysâinstead of sleeping in alleyways and digging in garbage for food, Robert has the support of Hope Stillwell, a Venice Beach resident who allows the teen access to her home and lets him live in a tree house in her backyard. Soon, Robert's cop friend, Detective Mitchell, refers him to a private investigator trying to locate a wealthy young San Francisco runaway. After Robert helps in a successful rescue, more referrals begin to come his way, but all of them are not from the friendly detective, and all of them do not necessarily end as happily. With each new investigation Robert takes on, he is faced with new life experiences and eye-opening self-evaluations, which have him pondering the future for the first time in his life. Up until this point, Robert's kept his existence under the radar to avoid detection by authorities. Now he's thinking of a future in private investigationsâwith business cards and allâbut, most importantly, he realizes the need to further his education and to interact more extensively with society at large. Readers will anxiously follow Robert's adolescent journey of growth in this coming-of-age novel filled with exhilarating chases and heart pounding moments.âSabrina Carnesi, Crittenden Middle School, Newport News, VA
[Page 136]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Voice of Youth Advocates Reviews : VOYA Reviews 2014 June
Cali spends his days playing basketball, surfing, and skateboarding on the boardwalk of Venice Beach, California. He ran away from the foster care system in Nebraska at the age of fourteen and has been making a life for himself off the grid, biding his time until his eighteenth birthday, when he will be able to re-enter society as a legal adult. He has found some good friendsâfrom the police detective who gives him occasional work to the woman who lets him live in the treehouse in her back yard. When his policeman friend asks him to help find a runaway who is suspected to be in the area, Cali not only finds the boy but also decides that he really enjoys the satisfaction of finding people and wants to be a private detective. Several challenging cases later, Cali has taken on a partner and is well on his way to a promising career Cali is truly a sympathetic character. He is flawed, definitely, and subject to emotional involvement in his cases that might color his judgment, but overall, he has an aura of caring and determination that teens will find appealing. Though not without intense moments of violence and suspense, his story is fresh and cleanly told, without the language or sketchy content that one might expect given the subject matter. The reader ends up rooting for Caliâand will know in the end that not only will he be okay, but also that his circle of friends and acquaintances will be well cared for.âLaura Lehner 4Q 4P J S Copyright 2011 Voya Reviews.