A thought-provoking story about suspicion, trust and a memorable pennant race from a one-time Brooklyn boy.
How does loyalty to country, to family and to the local baseball team define one’s life?
Pete is a typical seventh-grade Brooklyn boy until the Red Scare of the early 1950s upends his life. Instead of just playing punchball and fervently following the Brooklyn Dodgers on the radio, Pete finds himself trying to unravel the politics of his family history, one filled with Communist Party joiners and sympathizers. The FBI labels his father a red sympathizer and is trying to find his missing grandfather, who went to Russia in the 1930s, by turning family members into informers. Pete’s teacher, as easily swayed as so many others, turns the class against him, and his best friend, a girl, is forbidden to talk to him. In an act of rebellion, he embraces New York’s other National League baseball team, the Giants. He also enjoys reading Dashiell Hammett’s novels about Sam Spade and thinks in the detective’s voice, hoping that someday he, too, will be a “hard-boiled detective.” Avi builds Pete’s story, told in the first person, with page-turning tension and memorable characters that will leave readers with a strong sense of the insidious power wielded by the FBI and McCarthyites.
A thought-provoking story about suspicion, trust and a memorable pennant race from a one-time Brooklyn boy. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61620-359-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
A story just as relevant in our world, “where innocent people face persecution and death for making a choice about what they...
“There’s no place for the likes of you in our class,” Sasha Zaichik’s teacher tells him, and that seems to be the motto of the whole Stalinist nation.
Yelchin’s debut novel does a superb job of depicting the tyranny of the group, whether residents of a communal apartment, kids on the playground, students in the classroom or government officials. It’s the readiness of the group to create outsiders—bad ones, “unreliables,” “wreckers”—by instilling fear in everyone that chills. Not many books for such a young audience address the Stalinist era, when, between 1923 and 1953, leaving a legacy of fear for future generations. Joseph Stalin’s State Security was responsible for exiling, executing or imprisoning 20 million people. Sasha is 10 years old and is devoted to Stalin, even writing adoring letters to Comrade Stalin expressing his eagerness at becoming a Young Pioneer. But his mother has died mysteriously, his father has been imprisoned and Sasha finds he has important moral choices to make. Yelchin’s graphite illustrations are an effective complement to his prose, which unfurls in Sasha’s steady, first-person voice, and together they tell an important tale.
A story just as relevant in our world, “where innocent people face persecution and death for making a choice about what they believe to be right,” as that of Yelchin’s childhood. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9216-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Colorfully relayed and gratifying to read.
It’s 1974, and Josephine and Mama have given up their tony apartment and moved into the Happy World Trailer Park, in Glendale, Tennessee. Only problem is, it isn’t a happy place.
With Josephine’s dad gone and Mama’s sewing business suffering financially, they have no choice. The limited third-person narration describes Josephine’s views of “every miserable thing there was to see in Happy World,” from the rundown trailers to the residents who are facing challenges. Josephine meets Lisa Marie, who’s also 10 and who lives with her grandaddy and great-uncle. Lisa Marie tells her about a girl from the neighborhood named Molly, who was kidnapped nearly a year ago and hasn’t been found. Molly’s mom looks as if she’s barely hanging on. Josephine is struggling, too, but she’s convinced that she and Molly have “a kind of sisterhood,” and she’s sure that if she can rescue Molly, her own circumstances will become bearable. Things move quickly after Josephine recognizes and interprets a clue that might point to Molly’s whereabouts, leading to a thrilling and dangerous climax. The resulting relationships forged are well worth it all. Josephine’s resilience and ability to reassess herself and her situation are admirable. Difficult topics such as divorce, poverty, abduction, terminal illness, and incarceration are thoughtfully and age-appropriately explored. Most characters are cued white.
Colorfully relayed and gratifying to read. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9780823453696
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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