Less flavorful than its ancestors, Barbara Cohen’s The Carp in the Bathtub (1972) and Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family...
Rosenthal debuts with a slim, easily readable free-verse novel from the perspective of a girl who feels enveloped but lost in her enormous family.
Eleven-year-old Edith, fourth among her parents’ 12 children, feels that “[i]n my overcrowded family / I’m just another face. / I’m just plain Edith / of no special place.” Old enough to care for siblings and work her parents’ diner until almost two in the morning, young enough to care about a Shirley Temple doll, Edith needs a teacher’s nudge to find an identity. “[T]he Depression + lots of kids = never enough money,” so leaky shoes need cardboard, clothes are “hand-me-down / down / down / down / downs” and the family almost loses their house (but doesn’t). Contemporary, recession-aware readers will relate to Edith’s financial woes and also her realization that other people are even poorer. The author uses her mother’s history of growing up Jewish in Depression-era Baltimore as a basis, describing a certain kind of American Judaism (cheating on kosher rules with crab cakes; celebrating Christmas as Jews “because here in America / we can celebrate / anything we want”) and family tragedy in bare-bones verse so simple that the occasional rhyme is startling.
Less flavorful than its ancestors, Barbara Cohen’s The Carp in the Bathtub (1972) and Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family series, this is still a good companion for them. (author’s note, family photos, glossary) (Free verse/historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-61084-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An incredibly heartfelt depiction of immigrants and refugees in a land full of uncertainty.
Picking up a week after the grueling journey chronicled in The Only Road (2016), Diaz’s profound sequel finds 12-year-old Jaime Rivera and his cousin Ángela adjusting to life in El Norte.
Jaime doesn’t know English too well, and his first days at school result in an unfortunate bathroom accident, mocking giggles from his classmates, and snide comments from the class bully, Diego. To Jaime’s horror, Ángela seems to have changed overnight, making new friends with ease, switching to English almost exclusively, and acting aloof about their recent odyssey. Meanwhile, the specter of deportation looms endlessly, and terrible news from Guatemala involving Abuela and the Alphas erases any hope of returning to their village any time soon. Like its predecessor, this timely follow-up addresses the threats that immigrants and refugees face daily in El Norte, where “talk of a massive wall and deporting all of us” continues unabated. Diaz keeps the intimate third-person narration intact as she skillfully explores Jaime’s new life in New Mexico, although the novel’s noble objectives often deny any meaningful character development. Fortunately, well-sketched friends and family offer Jaime support in unexpected ways, including Sean, a deaf, white schoolmate who incites a pleasant subplot, and the gentle Don Vicente, an old Mexican cowboy whose relationship with Jaime forms the heart of the novel.
An incredibly heartfelt depiction of immigrants and refugees in a land full of uncertainty. (author’s note, references, further reading, glossary) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1455-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Deliciously dark and gripping.
Evie enters the otherworldly place called the Dark Sun Side, searching for Blight Harbor’s missing ghosts in this sequel to 2022’s The Clackity.
Twelve-year-old Evie Von Rathe returns, this time following the trail of missing ghost Florence and finding herself lured to the Dark Sun Side by ghoulish, evil Portia. Once there, Evie learns about the Radix, a swirling, black, oceanlike expanse of unforgiving magical power. In exchange for Evie’s return to the land of the living, Portia tasks her with retrieving the soul light from the center lantern of the Nighthouse. With the help of Bird, her tattooed sidekick who moves about her body at will, and a girl she meets on her journey named Lark, who is neither ghost nor human, Evie is pushed to her limits as she navigates this terrifying world on her important, soul-saving mission. Senf’s nightmarish, well-imagined supernatural landscape is original and compelling. Evie and Lark’s friendship is believably close and trusting, their shared pain and fear binding them together. Bird continues to be a scene-stealing companion, a necessary voice of reason and encouragement for Evie and readers alike. More than just a battle between good and supernatural evil, this story shows the ultimate power of empathy and tenacity. Readers will be left both satisfied by the ending and wanting more. Evie is cued white.
Deliciously dark and gripping. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781665934633
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
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