A compelling graphic offering that explores relevant gender roles and self-identity through a historical lens.
Abused by her domineering father, Pearl reinvents herself as a boy and takes to the road.
In the Depression-era United States, girls have few options, and headstrong and privileged white Pearl has a desire to learn. After her mother’s passing, Pearl is left with her grief-stricken father, who communicates with his fists rather than words. In an impulsive moment, she cuts off her hair, exchanges her fine dress for dungarees, and introduces herself as a boy named Soupy. Soupy meets Ramshackle, an elderly white hobo and a perpetual dreamer who is able to see wonder in the mundane. Ramshackle takes her under his wing and helps her navigate life as a hobo. As Ramshackle’s health declines, Soupy must decide whether she will ever reveal her true self to him. Told in graphic format, Soupy’s journey comes alive through richly color-saturated, usually monochromatic panels that orient readers to a bygone era. Castellucci has created a strong heroine who both defies conventionality and embodies empowerment; as her transformative journey nears its denouement, she makes a resolute decision: “I have to go and face my things or else I’ll never be free,” a message still highly relevant to today’s world.
A compelling graphic offering that explores relevant gender roles and self-identity through a historical lens. (Graphic historical fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61655-431-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dark Horse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Chilling, difficult, and definitely not for readers without a solid understanding of the Holocaust despite the relatively...
A young boy grows up in Adolf Hitler’s mountain home in Austria.
Seven-year-old Pierrot Fischer and his frail French mother live in Paris. His German father, a bitter ex-soldier, returned to Germany and died there. Pierrot’s best friend is Anshel Bronstein, a deaf Jewish boy. After his mother dies, he lives in an orphanage, until his aunt Beatrix sends for him to join her at the Berghof mountain retreat in Austria, where she is housekeeper for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. It is here that he becomes ever more enthralled with Hitler and grows up, proudly wearing the uniform of the Hitler Youth, treating others with great disdain, basking in his self-importance, and then committing a terrible act of betrayal against his aunt. He witnesses vicious acts against Jews, and he hears firsthand of plans for extermination camps. Yet at war’s end he maintains that he was only a child and didn’t really understand. An epilogue has him returning to Paris, where he finds Anshel and begins a kind of catharsis. Boyne includes real Nazi leaders and historical details in his relentless depiction of Pierrot’s inevitable corruption and self-delusion. As with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2006), readers both need to know what Pierrot disingenuously doesn’t and are expected to accept his extreme naiveté, his total lack of awareness and comprehension in spite of what is right in front of him.
Chilling, difficult, and definitely not for readers without a solid understanding of the Holocaust despite the relatively simple reading level. (Historical fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-030-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pagan magic, Heathcliff’s back story and a lot of scary dead maids: Dunkle’s knack for the creepy (By These Ten Bones, 2005) sets spines tingling. Woodcut-style chapter-head illustrations ratchet up the spook factor, especially those depicting corpses and ghosts. When Tabby becomes the “Young Maid” at Seldom House, she finds herself in a strange world, where she is expected to do little other than look after a bloodthirsty, nameless little boy, the “Young Master.” Seldom House and the neighboring village have no church, and dead maids haunt Tabby. Gradually she realizes she and the Young Master are marked for sacrifice (“It’s an honor to be given to the land,” one of the villagers tells her). While it seems clear from the start that Tabby will survive (she narrates the story from a later vantage point), it is not until the end that the connection to Wuthering Heights becomes clear. For readers familiar with Brontë’s novel, the final connection is a masterstroke; even those who don’t get it will find this a keeper. (Horror. 12 & up)
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9116-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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