LIONBOY: THE CHASE
by Zizou Corder
Dial Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0803729847
Ages 10-up
263 pages

When readers last saw Charlie Ashanti, the boy who can talk to cats, at the end of LIONBOY, he had liberated a band of lions from Major Thibaudet's floating circus and was rocketing through Europe on the Orient Express, heading to find his imprisoned parents. LIONBOY: THE CHASE picks up right where the first book in this wonderfully entertaining trilogy left off, and the pace of this engaging sequel keeps right up with the speed of an express train.

Charlie is off to Venice with the aid of King Boris of Bulgaria, hoping to find where his scientist parents, who seemed to be on the verge of finding a cure for asthma, are being kept prisoner. What he doesn't know is that his parents aren't in Venice --- they're in Vence, in the south of France. There his brilliant parents slowly are being brainwashed, their independence and free thinking sucked out of them by the evil corporation that is holding them hostage.

Soon Charlie, too, is a prisoner in the Palazzo Bulgaria in the heart of a ruined Venice. King Boris's right hand man has his own plans for Charlie's lions, especially the mysterious and sad lion Primo. With the help of his lions and an optimistic gondolier, Charlie must hatch a plan to escape and return his lions to their rightful home.

All this adventure has a nostalgic feel, complete with sheet music, painstakingly detailed line drawings, and maps and diagrams. Although the book is set in the future, readers will also learn a lot about Venice's past and (according to the book) its uncertain future.

Since LIONBOY: THE CHASE is book two in a trilogy, it's probably no surprise that it doesn't quite have a happy ending. The lion tamer Maccomo is still hot on their tail, as is the money-hungry Rafi Sadler. When readers see those three maddening words --- "To be continued" --- on the last page, they'll be growling with impatience until they can find out how Charlie's adventures will come to an end.

   --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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