Set in 1878, Rinaldi’s latest work of historical fiction is at once enlightening and highly engrossing. After the untimely death of her mother, Lizzy’s father leaves her in Santa Fe at a convent school. With a healthy sense of irony, Lizzy often finds the convent ways absurd. While many of the girls seek visions of the Virgin Mary, Lizzy is a nonbeliever and without affectation. The girls ostracize her, so she finds friendship with an odd assortment of people, including a homeless, old carpenter in need of food and shelter. Lizzy convinces the Bishop to hire the carpenter to build a badly needed staircase for the new choir loft. The other students resent the carpenter, however, as they await the appearance of a staircase through a miracle of St. Joseph. As the wait lengthens and tempers flare, Lizzy’s roommate and nemesis cruelly blinds Lizzy’s kitten. The carpenter offers many words of gentle comfort to Lizzy and soothes her wounded kitten. The carpenter is finally permitted to finish his work, and the kitten, against odds, regains its sight. The entire town is awestruck by the incomparable beauty of the spiral staircase, but the carpenter vanishes without even collecting his pay. Lizzy is never converted to Catholicism, but she and the reader are left to ponder the nature of miracles and human kindness. It is a pleasure to accompany Lizzy throughout this tale thrumming with mini-adventures and vivid characters. (author’s note, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-202430-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
Aimed at readers who have already encountered Anne Frank, this riveting historical novel from Mazer (Missing Pieces, 1995, etc.) is based on a little-known chapter of WWII history. Karin Levi’s story begins in a tiny attic room in Paris in the 1940s, where she is hidden away with her brother, Marc, and their mother, practicing the art of quiet. German soldiers are conducting house-to-house searches, rounding up Jews, and the small family is soon on the run, depending on strangers for scraps of food and shelter. When Maman falls ill, Karin and Marc head for Naples without her; the children board the Henry Gibbons, a ship full of European refugees bound for Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York. Upon their arrival in America, their story turns from one of flight and danger to the happiness and sorrow associated with adjusting to a new language, customs, and schooling, and making new friends. Although it is a shock to Karin, it comes as no surprise to readers when Marc reveals that Maman is dead. Mazer skillfully paints Karin as brave and independent, yet depicts her devotion to Maman throughout, writing unsent letters and never losing sight of her belief that one day they will be reunited. Rather than relying on events and facts of the war and its atrocities to create sympathy, the author paints her central character’s thoughts and feelings, her moments of weakness and her strength, so that the story is stirringly understated. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201468-3
Page Count: 189
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A melodramatic tale of a young snowboarder with terrifically bad judgement. First, Declan worms his way into the “Urban Xtreme Team,” a gang of Vancouver graffitists; then, when they perish in a self-started fire and he opts for a six-week rehabilitation stint in the mountains, he responds to the jeers of a rival by nearly killing himself three times, snowboarding down slopes that are beyond his ability. The third time is actually a suicide attempt, but in surviving it, he ends up straightening himself out. Declan picks up the rudiments of snowboarding with convenient ease, the cast is composed of types, and readers unfamiliar with the sport may stumble over the jargon; still, for solid vicarious entertainment, the plot is comprised of nonstop wild rides, avalanches, and wipe-outs. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 5, 1999
ISBN: 0-8225-3307-3
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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