by Martha Stone Graham ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2013
An often charming, if overstuffed, historical novel.
Graham’s debut novel tells the story of a plucky young Kentucky girl, from birth to adulthood.
The story centers on a girl named California May—dubbed “Callie May” by her friends and family—and her upbringing outside of Belmont, Ky., in the 1920s. At the start, Callie May is just like any other bright, adventurous 8-year-old young girl, and the book’s first part includes all the classic vignettes of girlhood, from playground fights to new best friends to first loves and school dances. Readers then follow Callie May and her siblings as they fall in love, get married and have children; Callie May’s brother even gets shipped off to war. Graham’s book spans more than 50 years in just 296 pages, and due to this expansive time frame (and the novel’s large number of characters), it often feels as if far too many storylines have been crammed into a single book. As a result, readers may feel that each subplot deserves more time and attention than it receives. Since Graham’s book is very similar to classic children’s tales, such as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, it might have been similarly separated into several installments, with each focused on one particular stage of Callie May’s life. The book is also rather dark for a young audience, as there’s a lot of death throughout—due to war, illness and even murder—and it might have benefited from a lighter tone. That said, one of the book’s strengths is how it seamlessly communicates its period setting through the use of subtle details in the text and dialogue. Overall, Graham’s novel offers readers an endearing story in the vein of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables or Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series.
An often charming, if overstuffed, historical novel.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482306996
Page Count: 300
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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