Product Description

Once there was a slink-chunk,
slam-dunk band called The Goat Guys

Cherokee Bat danced and sang. Witch Baby, Cherokee's almost-sister, pounded the beat on her drums. Raphael played the guitar, and Angel Juan kept the rhythm on his bass. They made music that sparkled like fireworks, and audiences loved them.

But with success came power, and power was a dangerous thing. Cherokee and The Goat Guys were swept up in it-and soon it was threatening to destroy them.

Until Cherokee realized that it was up to her to save them all . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1805012 in Books
• Published on: 1993-05-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fans of Weetzie Bat and Witch Baby will be delighted with this latest opportunity to reenter Block's magical vision of Los Angeles. With the grown-ups who make up the Bat household off making a film in South America, Cherokee and her "almost-sister" Witch Baby are left to their own devices. The adventure begins when Cherokee, acting on the advice of the family's mystic friend Coyote, makes a pair of wings for Witch Baby in order to lift her from the deep, mud-eating gloom into which she has fallen. Raphael and Angel Juan--the two other members of The Goat Guys, the rock band Cherokee and Witch Baby have formed--soon have magical costumes, too. But as the band's fame grows, the costumes exert a corrupting influence on the teenagers. The band's gradual immersion in sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll certainly is enthralling but many readers will be relieved when the group finally decides to abandon the dangerous activities that have clouded its members' individual roads to self-discovery. And much to her credit, Block's satisfying ending suggests that Weetzie Bat and her extended family--true to their characters--take the teenagers' experimentation and rebellion in stride. This latest effort provides yet another delicious and deeply felt trip to Block's wonderfully idiosyncratic corner of California. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 8-12-- Zany characters, pop culture, the California scene, and finely crafted language combine to tell an emotionally charged story with a contemporary message. Cherokee Bat and al most-sister Witch Baby are left behind when their parents go to South America to make a film. When Witch Baby stops eating and starts withdrawing into herself, Cherokee has to save her. Nothing seems to work until Angel Juan, Witch Baby's special childhood friend, returns from Mexico. Enlisting another friend on guitar, the four start a band, the Goat Guys, but only with the help of mystical powers does it become a hit. Success, however, has a price, and every thing begins to fly apart in wild and outrageous ways. Block has once again created a brief but entertaining and involving story. Her characters are odd, but somehow enchanting. Readers come to care about them in their childlike inno cence. The story isn't didactic, but illustrates the importance of family, friends, love, caring for the natural world, and maintaining order in the spiritual world. The fairy-tale quality of the book, its contemporary scene, and its modern language will appeal to teen readers, particular ly those who have enjoyed Weetzie Bat (1989) and Witch Baby (1991, both Harper Collins) .
- Gail Richmond, Point Loma High School, San Diego
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Block's third visit to the pop L.A. world focuses on Weetzie Bat's teenage daughter and her lifelong friends Raphael, Witch Baby, and Angel Juan, who start a rock band (the ``Goat Guys'') while their parents are in South America making a film, leaving the kids in care of Native-American friend Coyote. In outline, Cherokee is simpler than the earlier books: four chapters (``Wings,'' ``Haunches,'' ``Horns,'' ``Hooves'') portray the young musicians' rite of passage into adulthood as each receives, as an apparently liberating gift, an object representing part of a mythical goat. Their empowerment is Faustian: the joy of creating the music and of sexual awakening are both lost in the demands of success and the seductions of the drug culture. Fortunately, this is a fable; in the last chapter (``Home''), Coyote awakes from his ``Dreaming of past sorrows and the injured earth'' to help his young friends recall themselves to a more wholesome being as their parents return. More predictable than Weetzie Bat (1989) or Witch Baby (1991), but Block continues to illuminate serious contemporary themes with fresh, tellingly allusive imagery and a wonderfully lyrical and original style. Not to be missed. (Fiction. YA) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.