A heartwarming summer chronicle, ideal for teens struggling with their sexuality.
It’s summer vacation in the small town of Caneville, La., and 17-year-old Sam LaHay has a secret in Decker’s debut young adult debut.
The story opens at the beginning of summer—Sam’s last as a high school student. For the teenager, summer means a steady job at his mother’s nursery, junk-food binges with his best friend El (short for “Eleanor”) and the chance of a romantic encounter with Evan, one of his co-workers at the nursery. Evan doesn’t know that Sam is gay. No one does—or so he thinks. Sam’s plans for an ideal summer take a turn when El gets a job at a craft store at the mall, giving her a completely different schedule than Sam’s. El manages to convince Sam to spend some time with Mikey, one of their classmates whom Sam finds slightly odd. The two spend a good part of an afternoon together until Mikey tries to kiss him. After that, Sam discovers that El and Evan are dating. After Mikey runs away following a fight with his father, Sam finds him and the two realize they have a lot to learn from each other about being gay in a small town. Though the book is largely focused on Sam wrestling with the idea of coming out, Decker spends an equal amount of time illustrating a teenager’s lazy summer life in a small town: the neighbors, the malls, the boredom. Young adult readers will appreciate Decker’s frank discussion of sexuality, and those facing a similar experience will find Sam’s story relatable and edifying. The conclusion is packaged a little too neatly, but overall the book is a sweet coming-of-age story made even more appealing by Sam’s quirky narration.
A heartwarming summer chronicle, ideal for teens struggling with their sexuality.Pub Date: May 28, 2010
ISBN: 978-1441597380
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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