An engaging middle-grade tale about the power of love and letting go.
A bird in danger leads a woman to reminisce about the geese she tended as a girl.
In this posthumously published debut middle-grade novel, Coppola introduces readers to Tessie Farrell, an adult who lives in Florida. When she rescues an injured osprey and goes after the boys who harassed and abducted the bird’s relatives, Tessie reawakens memories of her childhood in 1950s upstate New York. At 9 years old, Tessie is sensitive about having been adopted and has an uneasy relationship with most of her classmates, particularly mean girl Sharon Grand. A slow-burning friendship with librarian and ornithologist Maudie Carrol begins to soften Tessie’s sharp edges (“Instead of criticizing or bossing me, she simply explained why things were”), and caring for a pair of abandoned geese finally gives her a sense of purpose. The geese, Wilbur and Orville, are the subject of Tessie’s science project. Taking care of them allows her to excel in a classroom where she often feels overlooked and to understand the motivations of adoptive parents like her own. The story is a quiet one, focused on Tessie’s internal development rather than a dramatic plot. Coppola has a keen eye for the passion of childhood friendships (“I loved and trusted her so much that if she had told me Santa Claus was real, I would have believed in him again”) and the subtle indignities and joys of being 9 (“In place of friends, I had imagination, and I created one-character plays in which I gave energetic and highly emotional performances, lacking only an audience”). Tessie is a prickly and self-contained character, but an endearing one, who allows readers to understand her conflicts and growth in detail. The prose could have benefited from additional editing, particularly the several points at which the first-person narration inadvertently switches to third-person. But there are also simple but elegant turns of phrase (“Spring comes like a shy bride in Upstate New York”) that make for enjoyable reading and a satisfying story.
An engaging middle-grade tale about the power of love and letting go.Pub Date: July 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4990-4915-2
Page Count: 142
Publisher: Page Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
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
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
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