Readers who have, with Alice, been waiting impatiently for her widowed father and favorite teacher, Miss Summers, to pick a date will have to wait some more; the Alice series (Outrageously Alice, 1997, etc.) continues to feature comic twists, comfortably familiar characters who still have surprises to reveal, and a plot that includes some serious issues. As she tries to decide whether to stick with boyfriend Patrick or play the field, Alice accompanies Elizabeth on her first visit to a gynecologist and gets an earful afterward, goes from the high of having Miss Summers over for Christmas to the low of hearing that she spent New Year’s Eve with another man, ruminates about topics as diverse as masturbation and careers, participates in a class project designed to analyze deceptive TV commercials, and struggles to cope with Miss Summers’s devastating announcement that she’ll be spending the next year in England as part of a teacher exchange. Naylor continues to usher Alice, and readers, toward adolescence with this well-knit, frequently hilarious story, cemented with buckets full of information, reassurance, and common sense. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-80355-9
Page Count: 121
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers who prefer their fantasy stocked with cozily familiar situations and character types will swoon over this romantic tale of a willowy, chestnut-haired princess and her Elven lover. Along with her other notable attributes, Gabrielle DesChênes is a gifted Healer, dedicated enough to her profession to remain unmarried at 27. But into passionately requited love she falls, with elegant, point-eared Féolan, who rides into the castle one day out of legend to warn that brutish invaders are massing just over the mountains. Amid preparations for war, the two must part—Gabrielle particularly troubled by the fact that Féolan’s expected lifespan is ten times her own. Bedight with formal-toned dialogue—“The wound is mending cleanly, and he did awaken earlier and speak to me”— bloody battles, medical miracles and numerous tearful partings and reunions (but no sex), this tale will delight tea-sippers of all ages. A sequel is announced, though as by the end, the invaders are routed and the two lovers betrothed, it’s hard to see where the story could go. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-55143-336-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Weak writing ruins a nicely structured integration of Arthurian legend with a Grimm’s fairy tale. Rowena’s locked up with her 11 sisters because her father’s afraid that they’ll disappear like their mother, Vivienne, the Lady of the Lake. Each night they disappear underground, where dancing destroys their elegant slippers. Elsewhere, Sir Bedivere promises a dying King Arthur to return Excalibur to Vivienne. Bedivere and Rowena share reciprocal mystical visions in which they fall in love. The sisters’ nightly dancing, as well as their goal of finding their lost mother, leads to the same enchanted underground lake as Bedivere’s task of honor. Details of “Twelve Dancing Princesses” are skillfully woven in with the Camelot plot; however, the text is cluttered with modifiers, the narration is unsubtle and trite and the workings of magic are shallow. Instead, see Vivian Vande Velde’s Book of Mordred (July 2005) and Dia Calhoun’s Phoenix Dance (October 2005). (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-4169-0579-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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