A heartwarming tale of friendship and the power of storytelling.
Two boys meet a mysterious old man on their magical train journey.
Billy’s a little rough around the edges. Pushing smaller kids around, talking back to his teachers, and arguing with his parents earned him the nickname “Billy the bully.” Then there’s Stephen, the polar opposite of Billy: a quiet, sensitive kid who spends most of his time writing poems and stories in his notebook. Having had a moment of revelation regarding his behavior, Billy befriends Stephen and makes a promise to change his ways. Soon they’re friends who genuinely care about each other; with Stephen’s good influence, Billy becomes kinder and more empathetic. Nevett creates two very real and complex characters in Billy and Stephen, despite the fact that they’re only children. They infuse the story with a sense of wonder that’s usually only found in a child’s point of view. In contrast, Billy and Stephen’s parents—especially the mothers—feel like mere sketches, without the richness of character that their children possess. Inspired by a dream Stephen has about an old man waiting for a train, the two friends decide to go on a journey by train. The day of their voyage soon arrives, and after boarding the train, they’re joined by an old man named Stan—the same man from Stephen’s dream—who seems to appear out of nowhere. Stan spins yarn after yarn about his own train travels that took him all over the world, from the crowded trains of India to the vast lands of Canada and America, and the small villages of England and Scotland. Finally, he tells the boys about the island of Trinidad and its famous “Last Train.” Nevett tells a magical, inventive story, but his prose is often stilted with awkward phrasings and unnatural-sounding dialogue. Also, numerous grammatical errors, such as missing punctuation and misplaced quotation marks, distract from enjoying the plot. The significance of storytelling is highlighted in a play the two boys create based on the old man’s tales, and Nevett adds an air of intrigue with a shocking connection between the old man and Billy.
A heartwarming tale of friendship and the power of storytelling.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2011
ISBN: 978-1467897822
Page Count: 96
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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