Alexandria LaFaye, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
Young Buck and Tunes Smith share the same last name, but that's only because Tunes' family took on the name of their owners when they were still slaves. As people react to the accusation that Tunes committed a murder, Buck discovers that his family doesn't respect Tunes and her father, Kneebone. When Tunes goes into hiding, Buck's family refuses to let him off their land. They suggest that he should end his friendship with her no matter what happens; they believe that she is guilty. Buck and Tunes struggle to prove her innocence. In the end, Tunes is acquitted for lack of evidence and moves away because the townspeople will not drop their suspicions or end their discrimination against her. This novel takes a frightening look at the depth and effects of racism in modern society. It is a powerful and painful tale of a young boy's personal exploration of prejudice, friendship, and honesty. 1996, Farrar, $16.00. Ages 12 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1996)
Stubborn na‹vet‚ destroys a close interracial friendship in this long, turgid story from the author of Haveli (1993), set on Virginia's Eastern Shore. After finding the floating body of a migrant worker, Buck, 12, is horrified when his best friend, Tunes, becomes a suspect. Sure that the real killer is prosperous, respected Jumbo Rawlins, "six foot seven, every inch lean, mean, and ill-intentioned," Buck urges Tunes to tell her side of the story. Instead, Tunes disappears. When Buck tracks her down, he's horrified to learn from her that Rawlins has been abusing her physically and sexually. Tunes tries to tell him that a black girl's word won't carry much weight against that of a white adult, but Buck is so convinced that justice will out that he persuades her to come out of hiding. As predicted, she's arrested and tried while Rawlins remains untouched; though not convicted, Tunes moves away and drops out of Buck's life forever. In matching smart, resourceful, opaque Tunes to innocent and blindly loyal Buck, Staples creates a telling contrast, but her penchant for explaining characters, relationships, and situations rather than showing them, plus a plot that wanders like the setting's swampy waterways, slows the pace; ambiguities in Tunes's story, plus Buck's disillusioned, now-it's-five-years-later-and-life-goes-on finish, are puzzling. 1996, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $16.00. © 1996 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bonnie O. Ericson (The ALAN Review, Winter 1997 (Vol. 24, No. 2))
Dangerous Skies is one of the most powerful works of adolescent fiction I have read in a long time. Staples, who so successfully conveyed the exotic Pakistani land and culture in Shabanu and Haveli, turns to the Chesapeake Bay area for the setting of this suspenseful and poignant story of the mixed-race friendship of Buck and Tunes Smith. Buck and Tunes share the same last name and the same age, 12, but Buck is descended from early English settlers, while Tunes' ancestors were slaves from Africa. Family relationships and old friendships are tested when Buck and Tunes find a body, and Tunes becomes the prime murder suspect. Tunes goes into hiding, but Buck locates her and learns the terrible secret of the real murderers' motive. Yet those in more influential positions remain unconvinced of Tunes' innocence, and her case goes to trial. This is a gripping story with stunning prose and a realistic ending. Readers will not soon forget the characters of Dangerous Skies. 1996, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 232 pp., $16.00. Ages 12 up.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 1996 (Vol. 50, No. 2))
Buck and Tunes are both twelve, and they've been best friends for years; it remains to be seen, in this little corner of the Chesapeake Bay, how long that can last when he's white and male and she's black and female. When Buck finds the body of Jorge Rodrigues, who managed the teams of local laborers, he and Tunes suspect fair-seeming but foul-tempered Jumbo Rawlin from the start; Jumbo, however, tells a smooth story that makes Tunes the prime suspect in Jorge's murder. As Buck tries to exonerate his friend, he runs up against the deep unstated prejudice that makes a white man's word worth more than a black girl's, and he begins to understand the reality of his world. While there are some compelling undercurrents here, the book's pacing is slow and uneven, and the children's accurate knowledge of the murderer's (rather predictable) identity adds emotional momentum at the expense of credibility. Staples depicts the sea and salt-soaked world of the bay vividly, however, and the bitterness of Buck's growing awareness and the far-from-triumphant ending gives the book a tang of truth. Ad--Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 1996, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1996, Farrar, 232p, $16.00. Grades 7-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1996)
An isolated small town on Virginia's Eastern Shore is the setting for a novel about a boy's loss of innocence when his best friend, a black girl, is falsely accused of murder. Staples is concerned here, as she was in her earlier works, with the plight of the powerless. There are problems with confusing flashbacks and with the first person narrator's voice, but the plot is gripping to the end. Category: Fiction. 1996, Farrar/Foster, 232pp.. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.