The Ear the Eye and the Arm - Coco

My book club book is The Ear the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer. It takes place in Zimbabwe, Africa. It is about three kids: Kuda who is the youngest, Rita the second oldest, and Tendai who is the oldest. They finally get to go into town for the first time, but they get kidnapped. The parents hire three detectives who have special powers. One has amazing eyesight, one has amazing hearing, and one can stretch his arms really far. I thought that the book was okay. Some parts were really exciting, but sometimes I got kind of bored.

I thought that the beginning and the end were very interesting, exciting, and fun to read. There was a lot of action and a lot of different things going on. In the beginning, they introduced the characters and then the kids went into town where they got kidnapped. The kidnappers were two guys called Knife and Fist who work for an evil woman called the She Elephant. (She is NOT a elephant.) I usually like the beginnings of books because they tell you a lot of things about the characters. In the end, the children, the children's parents, the detectives, and a whole bunch of other people defeat the bad guys. I like the endings of books when the bad guys get what they deserve and the good guys get to go on with their lives.

The middle I found a little bit boring. I thought it was kind of repetitive. A lot of it was just the kids trying to escape from the She Elephant and the kids at the Mellower's mom house (the Mellower is a person who hypnotizes you by praising you) doing chores and trying to escape from her. When the kids first go to Dead Mans Vlei (where the She Elephant lives) and to the Mellower's moms house it is really interesting. I just think that they stayed there a little too long. One part I did like about the middle was when they go to Resthaven, a place that does not have robots or technology. I liked this part because they were not there too long and a lot of different things happened there.

I think that Nancy Farmer should have made the book a little shorter. She had the children doing some things over and over again. I think that she could have put in more detail on some important facts and less detail on the not so important facts. I would have liked to know more about the spirits that possess people and give them special talents. She wrote about them in the beginning of the book, but I felt that she did not explain them well enough. My last piece of advice to Nancy Farmer is that I think that she could have taken out some of the characters. Sometimes I found myself wondering why she had put some of the characters in the book. I personally thought that some characters were not very important and that they were kind of "extra" characters.

All and all I think that even though The Eye the Ear and the Arm could have been a little bit better, it was a pretty good book and I am glad that I read it. I would probably give this book three or four trees.