Ellen's mother has breast cancer, and Ellen (a British teenager), like her father and brother, is trying her very best to be supportive, even though her own worry is often overwhelming. Woven into the account of the mother's lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments is the story of the discovery of an ancient spring beneath a muddy, trash-strewn bank on the grounds of Ellen's school. Ellen and her best friend, Laura, begin helping Miss Corrigan, their history teacher (and, it turns out, a breast- cancer survivor), restore the site. ``Corrie'' believes that the site was once a sacred spot where travelers and those in search of healing drank and left offerings for ``Ellen of the Ways,'' a pagan goddess later identified with the Christian St. Helen. As her family copes with the ups and downs of the protracted cancer treatment, Ellen finds solace at the well. The book ends with a ceremony marking the restoration of the spring and a family holiday celebrating the end of the treatments—and the hope that Ellen's mother is well. Gracefully avoiding didacticism, Tomlinson (The Forestwife, 1995, etc.) makes regular reference to the many sources of healing, finding it not only in modern medicine, but in ancient wisdom, the mind and imagination, and in the love and support of family and friends. Readers will be borne along by the lively pace and the first-person, dialogue-heavy style. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-7894-2459-2
Page Count: 118
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Illegal immigrant sisters learn a lot about themselves when their family faces deportation in this compelling contemporary drama. Immigrants from Bangladesh, Nadira, her older sister Aisha and their parents live in New York City with expired visas. Fourteen-year-old Nadira describes herself as “the slow-wit second-born” who follows Aisha, the family star who’s on track for class valedictorian and a top-rate college. Everything changes when post-9/11 government crack-downs on Muslim immigrants push the family to seek asylum in Canada where they are turned away at the border and their father is arrested by U.S. immigration. The sisters return to New York living in constant fear of detection and trying to pretend everything is normal. As months pass, Aisha falls apart while Nadira uses her head in “a right way” to save her father and her family. Nadira’s need for acceptance by her family neatly parallels the family’s desire for acceptance in their adopted country. A perceptive peek into the lives of foreigners on the fringe. (endnote) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-4169-0351-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Ginee Seo/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
