Myers (Ethan Between Us, 1998, etc.) takes on WWII and the folks on the Oklahoma home front. Gail knows that everything has changed when the telegram arrives stating that her father is missing in action. Although everyone in their small town, including Gail’s grandmother and her blind and bitter Uncle Ned, believe that her father is dead, Gail and her mother refuse to give up hope. Christmas is coming, and Gail wants her twin younger siblings to hope, too. Alternating with Gail’s story at home is the story of a navigator and a gunner who survive the crash of their plane. The gunner drags the navigator to safety where they are protected by French members of the Resistance; the navigator dies, while the gunner makes his way at last to England. Meanwhile, Gail learns more about her family, and how Ned’s blindness and his wife’s leaving have twisted him; he even attacks Captain, Gail’s golden retriever. The story doesn’t have the natural flow of some of Myers’s other novels; the reconciliations are mechanical (and plentiful), while the plot twists are rather heavyhanded: Christmas revelations, rescues, kindnesses, and sorrows. Despite such tampering, what remains vivid is the girl, her dog, and life on the home front, when the war came over the radio. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8027-8706-1
Page Count: 134
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
One of a four-book series designed to help the very young prepare for new siblings, this title presents a toddler-and-mother pair (the latter heavily pregnant) as they read about new babies, sort hand-me-downs, buy new toys, visit the obstetrician and the sonographer, speculate and wait. Throughout, the child asks questions and makes exclamations with complete enthusiasm: “How big is the baby? What does it eat? I felt it move! Is it a boy or girl?” Fuller’s jolly pictures present a biracial family that thoroughly enjoys every moment together. It’s a bit oversimplified, but no one can complain about the positive message it conveys, appropriately, to its baby and toddler audience. The other titles in the New Baby series are My New Baby (ISBN: 978-1-84643-276-7), Look at Me! (ISBN: 978-1-84643-278-1) and You and Me (ISBN: 978-1-84643-277-4). (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84643-275-0
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
The hazy hot summer seems interminable for a young African-American boy and his pregnant mother. “Can’t cool down!” is the refrain that reverberates throughout the tale, and it’s literally true; lack of rain has put the city on a water conservation alert and the mother worries about all her flowers. Instead of despairing, mother and child surreptitiously water the plants using kitchen pots under the cloak of darkness; the theme of personal resilience and coping permeates the tale. A cooling, life-giving rain heralds the onset of the mother’s labor and the arrival of a new baby sister, Silver Rain Brown. The special bond between mother and son is readily apparent in Flavin’s full-page, full-color illustrations. As for the father, there is only one reference for readers to interpret: “Four a.m. and I can’t sleep, wishing Daddy would come back, wishing, wishing it would rain.” Helldorfer deftly captures the heavy oppressiveness of a summer heat wave, from children attempting to fry eggs on the sidewalk to short tempers and sleeping the hot days away, while Flavin’s illustrations artfully reflect the shimmering cityscapes. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-73093-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
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