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ME AND RUPERT GOODY

Name: ME AND RUPERT GOODY
Author: Barbara O’Connor
ISBN: 0-374-34904-5

by Barbara O’Connor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1999

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From O’Connor (Beethoven in Paradise, 1997), a second novel grounded by a clear sense of place, and by the well-defined characters who inhabit it. Jennalee spends most of her time with elderly Uncle Beau, the man who runs a general store. When Rupert Goody, a mildly retarded black man arrives, claiming to be Uncle Beau’s son, Jennalee doesn’t believe him for two reasons: Beau is white, and she’s afraid of losing her place as his surrogate daughter. She is determined to be hateful to Rupert, which, in light of his gentleness, is difficult. When the store is accidentally burned down, she realizes that Rupert is Beau’s son, and that she still has a place in the elderly man’s heart. By allowing Jennalee to tell her story in a strong and unique voice, O’Connor manages the difficult feat of showing her heroine acting spitefully without ever making her seem bratty or losing reader sympathy. The story is also about Beau and Rupert, both of whom wait patiently for Jennalee to understand and come to terms with Rupert’s presence. Perhaps wisely, the author doesn’t deal with the issues of Rupert’s mixed race or out-of-wedlock birth; the townspeople accept it, Jennalee eventually accepts it, and readers are expected to accept it as well. (Fiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1999

ISBN: 0-374-34904-5

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FANTASTIC SECRET OF OWEN JESTER
by Barbara O’Connor

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SMALL ADVENTURE OF POPEYE AND ELVIS
by Barbara O’Connor

- BOOK REVIEW
GREETINGS FROM NOWHERE
by Barbara O’Connor

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DAVID GOES TO SCHOOL

by David Shannon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

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The poster boy for relentless mischief-makers everywhere, first encountered in No, David! (1998), gives his weary mother a rest by going to school. Naturally, he’s tardy, and that’s but the first in a long string of offenses—“Sit down, David! Keep your hands to yourself! PAY ATTENTION!”—that culminates in an afterschool stint. Children will, of course, recognize every line of the text and every one of David’s moves, and although he doesn’t exhibit the larger- than-life quality that made him a tall-tale anti-hero in his first appearance, his round-headed, gap-toothed enthusiasm is still endearing. For all his disruptive behavior, he shows not a trace of malice, and it’ll be easy for readers to want to encourage his further exploits. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-590-48087-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
GOLD!
by David Shannon ; illustrated by David Shannon

- BOOK REVIEW
MR. NOGGINBODY AND THE CHILDISH CHILD
by David Shannon ; illustrated by David Shannon

- BOOK REVIEW
ROY DIGS DIRT
by David Shannon ; illustrated by David Shannon

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THE TIGER RISING

by Kate DiCamillo ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

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Themes of freedom and responsibility twine between the lines of this short but heavy novel from the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (2000). Three months after his mother's death, Rob and his father are living in a small-town Florida motel, each nursing sharp, private pain. On the same day Rob has two astonishing encounters: first, he stumbles upon a caged tiger in the woods behind the motel; then he meets Sistine, a new classmate responding to her parents' breakup with ready fists and a big chip on her shoulder. About to burst with his secret, Rob confides in Sistine, who instantly declares that the tiger must be freed. As Rob quickly develops a yen for Sistine's company that gives her plenty of emotional leverage, and the keys to the cage almost literally drop into his hands, credible plotting plainly takes a back seat to character delineation here. And both struggle for visibility beneath a wagonload of symbol and metaphor: the real tiger (and the inevitable recitation of Blake's poem); the cage; Rob's dream of Sistine riding away on the beast's back; a mysterious skin condition on Rob's legs that develops after his mother's death; a series of wooden figurines that he whittles; a larger-than-life African-American housekeeper at the motel who dispenses wisdom with nearly every utterance; and the climax itself, which is signaled from the start. It's all so freighted with layers of significance that, like Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue (2000), Anne Mazer's Oxboy (1995), or, further back, Julia Cunningham's Dorp Dead (1965), it becomes more an exercise in analysis than a living, breathing story. Still, the tiger, "burning bright" with magnificent, feral presence, does make an arresting central image. (Fiction. 10-12)