Forest of the Pygmies by Isabel Allende. This is the third in a series of young adult novels that Allende has written. This'll be short because, unfortunately, it wasn't very good. The story is OK at best -- Alex and Nadia, the teenage heroes of the other books, are off on another adventure with Alex's grandmother, a writer for International Geographic magazine -- not even much orginality there. The story takes place in Africa and includes lots of animals and the overthrow of a village tyrant. As with the others in the series, Allende tries to mix in a little mysticism and a little pseudo-religion.
Allende writes in Spanish so its not clear whether to blame her or her translater for the weak use of language. The lesson of the last decade or so thanks to Harry Potter is that its a bad idea to write down to teenagers and young adults. Potter and others (see the Artemis Fowl post a few weeks ago) don't really make any concessions to the age of their readers. They tell a good story and assume that the reader will rise to the occasion. Thankfully, millions of kids have proven that to be the right approach.
Skip this one.
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