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ROOSTER

Name: ROOSTER
Author: Beth Nixon Weaver
ISBN: 1-58837-001-1

by Beth Nixon Weaver ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2001

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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

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION

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THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS

by John Boyne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2006

Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.

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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

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ALL THE BROKEN PLACES
by John Boyne

- BOOK REVIEW
A TRAVELER AT THE GATES OF WISDOM
by John Boyne

- BOOK REVIEW
A LADDER TO THE SKY
by John Boyne

- SEEN & HEARD
Author in Twitter Feud with Auschwitz Museum

- SEEN & HEARD
‘Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ Sequel in the Works

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NEVER FALL DOWN

by Patricia McCormick ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 8, 2012

Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...

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A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.

The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.

Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)