Chosen - Softcover

A truck crushes 12-year-old Jodie Christianson, and he is rushed to the hospital. Miraculously enough, he is unscathed. Not unchanged, however, for on returning to school, the erstwhile D student correctly answers every question put to him. He cures one friend's asthma and another's bad vision, changes some water into wine, and after the truck driver's son bullies him, raises the man from a coma. Even before then, Jodie has wondered, Could I be Jesus come again? Faithless Father O'Higgins assures him he isn't, but at the climax of Millar's cleverly developed story, even the priest becomes a believer. An anticlimax is also at hand, and as he reveals in the appended writer-artist dialogue, artist Gross has hinted at it all along. Most readers won't spot the warnings, having been thoroughly absorbed in Millar's skillful characterizations and manipulation of details from the Gospels. Gross' rather bland artwork, made more divertingly kitchen-sinkish by Jeanne McGee's dusty pastel colors, lulls one's attention, too. Few will mind the con job, though. This is a helluva cautionary tale. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved