A strong-willed young woman pursues her educational dreams in this Andy Hardy–esque tale of a rural school in peril, circa 1925. When Miss Fletcher’s mother’s illness calls her away from her teaching position at a one-room Colorado schoolhouse, the school board president is transparent in his pleasure at the prospect of closing the school. Fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson is not—closing the school will mean missing the exams that would qualify her to go on to high school, effectively dashing her hopes of becoming a teacher. But all is not lost: the students vote to continue secretly, with Ida as their teacher. While the plot is entirely predictable—the mean school board president finds them out and tries to shut the school down, only to be defeated in a climactic public meeting—the characters are well-developed and appealing. Ida is a diminutive spitfire who steers the family’s broken-down car while her little brother crouches on the floor to operate the gas and the clutch; her best friend Tom is a tinkerer whose home printing press saves the day; and even the most obstructive student in school is rendered sympathetically and with depth. Avi (Prairie School, p. 494, etc.) effectively conveys Ida’s difficulty in balancing her new role as teacher within her already busy life as student, family member (and therefore helper on the family’s sheep farm), and friend, and the details of one-room education are genuinely fascinating. This isn’t heavy stuff, but it gives a glimpse into a past where, although the form of education may have been very different from today’s, the problems facing the schools and students will be all too familiar to modern readers. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-216375-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
Patchy and sentimental but central to our past, present, and future; at once grand and intimate.
A broad history of our planet overlaid on a seed’s experience of time and change.
Spun out to doorstopper dimensions by the overly liberal use of single lines of narrative on otherwise blank pages, Selznick’s latest fulsomely illustrated tale twines storylines large-scaled and small-, literal and metaphorical, immediate and spanning billions of years. In a Cretaceous forest, the desperate efforts of sycamore seed Merwin to protect his visionary little sibling Louise make for adventures aplenty involving fire, winds, dinosaurs, and even a volcanic eruption—with occasional breaks for flashbacks or philosophical dialogues with their loving Mama, a decomposing leaf, and the Earth itself. He eventually fails, as the two are swept off in different directions. They reunite many years later to grow up side by side, branches intertwined, after which the author fast-forwards to the present and a seedling’s rescue from a city sidewalk crack by a little Black girl. Most of the illustrations come in wordless, full-page sequential bursts, and if their ultra-soft focus isn’t particularly suitable for capturing more violent events, the lyrical, dramatic, and comical ones glow with vivid, cinematic intensity. In a lengthy afterword the author provides nature notes as well as describing the story’s origins as a movie concept from Steven Spielberg (whose tendency toward sentimentality is all over this), closing with a bibliography that includes, appropriately, The Carrot Seed and A Tree Is Nice.
Patchy and sentimental but central to our past, present, and future; at once grand and intimate. (Illustrated fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781338180633
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
A strong coming-of-age story grounded in a vibrant cultural heritage.
An African American tween learns about her family’s connection to conjure magic—and human evil—in 1960s South Carolina.
Jezebel and her twin brother, Jay, know their family will never be the same following their Gran’s death. Their father’s unexplained disappearance a few years back is another loss that has yet to heal. Gran was a talented Gullah rootworker whose abilities were sought by some and reviled by others. The local White deputy harasses families who use rootwork even as they are needed for the healing denied by segregated hospitals. Now, Jezebel and Jay are about to learn these skills from their uncle to keep the legacy alive. For the first time, the twins will not be in the same class since Jezebel will skip fifth grade. She becomes the target of bullies but manages to make one friend, a girl new to the school. As the rootwork lessons proceed, the twins become more aware of change all around them, from whispered voices in the marsh to the strange actions of Jezebel’s doll. It becomes clear that they have inherited connections to the spiritual world and that they face a very human threat. This richly detailed narrative offers elements of magical realism against a backdrop of social change, presenting a convincing family story and exploring community differences. Although Jezebel is a spirited narrator, Jay and other characters are fully realized.
A strong coming-of-age story grounded in a vibrant cultural heritage. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-289957-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
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