Next book

SEVENTEEN AGAINST THE DEALER

Dicey learned early that hard work is essential to maintaining independence; now, at 21, she pursues a vocational goal so relentlessly that she imperils all she holds most dear—in this somber conclusion to the Tillerman cycle. Jeff wants to marry Dicey, soon; Dicey loves him deeply and for the right reasons, but puts him off: she has dropped out of school hoping to support herself—and the family—by building boats. Though she has worked diligently for a nest egg and lovingly reclaimed a collection of old tools in preparation, she is underfunded and—worse—unprepared in more essential ways. When the tools are stolen, she learns she should have been insured; she loses her only order because she lacks a contract; instead of actually building, she takes on the grueling task of painting 30 poorly made rowboats in order to meet expenses. Meanwhile, an enigmatic, silver-tongued drifter helps Dicey understand how narrow she has become and pitches in with the work—for which he finally exacts his own bitter price; and Dicey is so absorbed that she ignores Jeff for weeks and doesn't notice that Gran is seriously ill until it is almost too late. No one who loves the Tillermans—whose joys and troubles are as compelling as ever—will want to miss this. As a novel on its own, driven though Dicey is, it is more than a cautionary tale about a workaholic; the brothers' and sisters' experiences are richly textured and carefully interrelated, with Maybeth's failure/success especially telling in contrast to Dicey's. Dicey's flight from marriage may seem insufficiently explained by her yen to build, but might in fact have been predicted from her parents' traumatic relationship. Dicey's union with Jeff has been long foreseen; here, their coming together seems less inevitable and sadly bleak. Still, with her usual skill, Voigt convinces us that this is the way it would be.

Pub Date: April 1, 1989

ISBN: 0689851332

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989

Next book

WRECKING BALL

From the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series , Vol. 14

Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.

The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.

When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.

Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Amulet/Abrams

Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019

Next book

FAMILIES BELONG

A joyful celebration.

Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.

The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.

A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020

Close Quickview