Despite relying on some clichéd events and characters, Weaver shows strong storytelling ability in her first novel, a coming-of-age story set in the late 1960s. Fifteen-year-old Kady Palmer lives in a dilapidated cottage in a central-Florida orange grove with her parents, three siblings, and a demented grandmother. Two days a week, this poor family employs Jewel, a maid who gives Kady advice and the love her mother withholds. Next door live 17-year-old Tony, a responsible, articulate Cuban-American; his younger brother Rooster, who was brain-damaged at birth; and their alcoholic father. Rooster adores Kady, but she often snaps at him, wishing she had a normal life and fewer responsibilities. When Jon, a wealthy schoolmate, falls for Kady, she accepts his gifts of pretty dresses and money so she doesn’t have to baby-sit after school. Instead, they spend time getting high with a group of spoiled rich kids at a nearby spring. One day Rooster finds them, eats some of their marijuana brownies, and—in a scene straight from propaganda movies about pot—tries to fly out of a tree. When he ends up in a coma, Jon wants to keep the brownies a secret. Kady finally recognizes his shallowness and starts to appreciate the strengths of her family and Tony. Weaver creates suspense, a strong sense of place, and a believable protagonist in narrator Kady. But too many characters are stereotyped—the warmhearted maid, the self-centered rich kids—while others, like her siblings, remain shadowy in this promising but uneven debut. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-58837-001-1
Page Count: 308
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Stronger books may exist about the 1960s, but female friendship tales never go out of style.
For “bad girls,” hell can be a place on Earth.
In Houston in the early ’60s, girls only seem to have two choices: be a good girl and get married or be a bad girl and live your life. Fifteen-year-old Evie, from a working-class White family, became a bad girl after her sister’s shotgun wedding took her away from home. Mexican American neighbor Juanita, who smokes, drinks, wears intense eye makeup, and runs with the tough crowd, takes Evie under her wing, but despite the loyalty of this new sisterhood, Evie often feels uncertain of her place. When a rich girl from the wealthy part of town named Diane saves Evie from assault by killing the attacker, Evie finds a new friend and, through that friendship, discovers her own courage. This work borrows a few recognizable beats from S.E. Hinton’s 1967 classic, The Outsiders—class tensions, friendship, death, and a first-person narrative that frequently employs the word tuff—but with a gender-swapped spin. Overall, the novel would have benefited from a stronger evocation of the setting. During an era of societal upheaval, Evie struggles to reconcile her frustration at the limited roles defined for her and her friends, with many moments of understanding and reflection that will resonate with modern readers’ sensibilities—although sadly she still victim blames herself for the attempted assault.
Stronger books may exist about the 1960s, but female friendship tales never go out of style. (author's note, resources) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-23258-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
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