Her mother’s sudden, wordless departure drives Nissa, 11, into mental instability in this searching, character-driven debut. Moody and flamboyant, Heirah Rae was neither happy nor accepted in tiny Harper, Louisiana, and although she had briefly escaped before, this time it is permanent. Battered by waves of grief, rage, love, longing, and guilt, Nissa becomes even more mercurial than her mother, falling suddenly into screaming tantrums, attacking those around her, twice attempting suicide, all the while trying to understand why Heirah left. Nissa also wonders how her kind, patient, inarticulate father, Ivar, could take up with another woman shortly after Heirah leaves. Readers will find the adult characters’ tolerance for Nissa’s wild behavior hard to credit, but LaFaye creates a sparky, tough-love friendship between her and her classmate Mary, and through flashbacks makes Heirah’s flight—from a life which narrow-minded, small-town gossip and multiple miscarriages had made a living hell—easier to comprehend. Heirah does return, if only to say goodbye, to promise to keep in touch, and to indirectly help Nissa accept her father’s remarriage. Even if there is no end to books about shattered families living in small southern towns, LaFaye depicts complex, profoundly disturbed characters with a sure hand, and this turbulent story joins Ruth White’s Belle Prater’s Boy (1996) as a cut above the rest. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: June 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81513-1
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A legally blind seventh-grader with clearer vision than most wins acceptance in a new Florida school as his football-hero older brother self-destructs in this absorbing, multi-stranded debut. Paul's thick lenses don't keep him from being a first-rate soccer goalie, but they do make him, willy-nilly, a "handicapped" student and thus, according to his new coach, ineligible to play. After a giant sinkhole swallows much of his ramshackle school, Paul is able to transfer to another school where, with some parental collusion, he can keep his legal status a secret. It turns out to be a rough place, where "minorities are in the majority," but Paul fits himself in, playing on the superb soccer team (as a substitute for one of the female stars of the group) and pitching in when a freeze threatens the citrus groves. Bloor fills in the setting with authority and broad irony: In Tangerine County, Florida, groves are being replaced by poorly designed housing developments through which drift clouds of mosquitoes and smoke from unquenchable "muck fires." Football is so big that not even the death of a player struck by lightning during practice gets in the way of NFL dreams; no one, including Paul's parents, sees how vicious and amoral his brother, Erik, is off the field. Smart, adaptable, and anchored by a strong sense of self-worth, Paul makes a memorable protagonist in a cast of vividly drawn characters; multiple yet taut plotlines lead to a series of gripping climaxes and revelations. Readers are going to want more from this author. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-201246-X
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1997
Fans of Cameron’s Huey and Julian stories (More Stories Huey Tells, 1997, etc.) are in for a treat as Gloria, their friend from those tales, gets a book of her own and graciously allows the two brothers to share it . In the first tale, Gloria makes a wonderful card for her mother, but the wind blows it away and it ends up in the cage of a cantankerous parrot. Thanks to Mr. Bates, Huey and Julian’s dad, the day is saved, as is the burgeoning friendship that Gloria and the boys have struck up with new neighbor Latisha in the story, “The Promise.” In another story, Gloria has to deal with a huge problem—fractions—and this time it’s her dad who helps her through it. Mr. Bates proves helpful again when the group trains an “obsessed” puppy, while Gloria’s mother is supportive when Gloria is unintentionally hurt by her three best friends. The stories are warm and funny, as Gloria, a spunky kid who gets into some strange predicaments, finds out that her friends and wise, loving adults are good to have around when trouble beckons. Great fun, with subtly placed, positive messages that never take center stage. (b&w illustrations) (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: March 9, 2000
ISBN: 0-374-32670-3
Page Count: 93
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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