After her father lost his high-paying job, 13-year-old Irene’s parents sold their expensive New York City apartment, withdrew her from her private school and moved in with her grandfather upstate. Her nurseryman grandfather’s calm demeanor and wise advice contrast sharply with her mother’s impatient superficiality, and Irene bonds with him immediately. As her father searches for a job, her mother fails to fully adjust, continuing her immature denial and not quite reining in her abundant spending. Irene, meanwhile, quickly gets over the worst of her disappointment after she meets a large family and makes friends with quiet Meg and her attractive, outgoing older brother, Jim. Their enthusiastic attitude toward life helps Irene accept her changed situation, effectively eliminating a lot of the tension that might have propelled the plot forward. Interesting imagery abounds: After inserting white plant tags into flats of perennials, Irene sadly reflects that “the table before me looked like a miniature graveyard.” Unimportant subplots—a hit-and-run accident and a trip to visit an older half sister—meander into the story without adding significant depth. Yet some characters are richly drawn, and Irene, a likable teen, shows a new maturity as her summer in the country winds down to a mildly surprising conclusion. Quietly soothing and pleasantly entertaining. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7613-7303-2
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world.
Sent to stay with octogenarian relatives for the summer, 14-year-old Mike ends up coordinating a community drive to raise $40,000 for the adoption of a Romanian orphan. He’ll never be his dad's kind of engineer, but he learns he’s great at human engineering.
Mike’s math learning disability is matched by his widower father's lack of social competence; the Giant Genius can’t even reliably remember his son’s name. Like many of the folks the boy comes to know in Do Over, Penn.—his great-uncle Poppy silent in his chair, the multiply pierced-and-tattooed Gladys from the bank and “a homeless guy” who calls himself Past—Mike feels like a failure. But in spite of his own lack of confidence, he provides the kick start they need to cope with their losses and contribute to the campaign. Using the Internet (especially YouTube), Mike makes use of town talents and his own webpage design skills and entrepreneurial imagination. Math-definition chapter headings (Compatible Numbers, Zero Property, Tessellations) turn out to apply well to human actions in this well-paced, first-person narrative. Erskine described Asperger’s syndrome from the inside in Mockingbird (2010). Here, it’s a likely cause for the rift between father and son touchingly mended at the novel's cinematic conclusion.
A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: June 9, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25505-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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