Rayona Taylor, the heroine from Dorris's adult novels, A Yellow Raft in Blue River (1987) and Cloud Chamber (1997), is featured in this prequel, about her life as an 11-year-old who is abandoned by her Native American mother, and shuffled from place to place by her African-American father. Rayona spends time in two foster homes before she ends up with her father's mother, sister, and grandmother, who are white. Wherever she goes, Rayona has an effect on the adults—they grow and change while she stays the same. The first-person narration is sophisticated and perceptive, and seems to promise more of a story than it delivers: As the three older women and Rayona climb in a car for a cross-country trip back to the girl's mother, readers are ready for the story to begin at last, until they realize that there are only 20 pages left in the book. Dorris's lyrical writing and ability to create evocative moments will sustain those who have read his historical novels, but won't give them an idea of the real Rayona of the earlier books. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-7868-0301-0
Page Count: 106
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
Witty repartee between the central characters, as well as the occasional well-done set piece, isn’t enough to hold this hefty debut together. Teenagers Seth and Kendra are dropped off by traveling parents at their grandfather’s isolated Connecticut estate, and soon discover why he’s so reluctant to have them—the place is a secret haven for magical creatures, both benign and decidedly otherwise. Those others are held in check by a complicated, unwritten and conveniently malleable Compact that is broken on Midsummer Eve, leaving everyone except Kendra captive in a hidden underground chamber with a newly released demon. Mull’s repeated use of the same device to prod the plot along comes off as more labored than comic: Over and over an adult issues a stern but vague warning; Seth ignores it; does some mischief and is sorry afterward. Sometimes Kendra joins in trying to head off her uncommonly dense brother. She comes into her own at the rousing climax, but that takes a long time to arrive; stick with Michael Buckley’s “Sisters Grimm” tales, which carry a similar premise in more amazing and amusing directions. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-59038-581-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
A breezy middle-school romance from Frank (Will You Be My Brussels Sprout?, 1996, etc.). Not only does the level of domestic tension rise rapidly after her mother’s Uncle Max, recovering from a stroke, moves into the cramped Cooper apartment, but Joy suddenly finds herself on the outs with her best friend Maple, who has become joined at the hip to amateur musician Wade. Joy makes a new connection, too, due to some surreptitious matchmaking by Uncle Max: enter a friendly, eminently promising older schoolmate, also named Max. While this budding relationship is growing into full-scale delirium, Joy returns the favor by encouraging Uncle Max and his garrulous neighbor, Rose, to spend time together; by the end, Uncle Max follows Rose to her winter quarters in Florida, and offers to trade his roomy apartment for theirs. Cast with likable, well-meaning characters, driven more by cheers than tears, this tidily resolved New York City tale will please Frank’s fans, and send newcomers to her earlier books. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7894-2538-6
Page Count: 277
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
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