Sixteen short stories by the noted urban fantasist capture both the wistful sadness of epic ballads and the lingering beauty of summer dreams. These tales (most published previously) were not originally written for teens, but all feature adolescent female protagonists, usually runaways, orphans, or those otherwise cast adrift. Organized by their shared settings, they reveal the transformation caused by discovering the mythic currents that flow beside, under, and through contemporary life. It can be two sisters who encounter vampires with a most unusual agenda (“There’s No Such Thing” and “Sisters”); or a half–breed runaway who runs afoul of an elfin biker gang, only to gain a champion with his own scars (“Stick”); or a rebellious rag-picker who creates her own family among the stray dogs and throwaway people (“But for the Grace Go I” and the title story); or a misunderstood music student, whose tales of faerie lead to accusations of drugs and devil-worship, until her mother admits to hiding from her own (“Ghosts of Wind and Shadow”). De Lint’s (Onion Girl, 2001, etc.) pen is ever graceful and evocative, his heroines simultaneously earthy and evanescent. Like the young artist of “Somewhere in My Mind There is a Painting Box,” most of them learn to tread the delicate balance between “fairies and fancies” and “the everyday magic all around.” But in the classic paradigm of adolescence, what they gain in wisdom and insight they lose in innocence; and they, like the reader, will always feel “the small ache that carries in it a seed of wonder.” (Short stories. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-670-03584-X
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Aspiring filmmaker/first-novelist Chbosky adds an upbeat ending to a tale of teenaged angst—the right combination of realism and uplift to allow it on high school reading lists, though some might object to the sexuality, drinking, and dope-smoking. More sophisticated readers might object to the rip-off of Salinger, though Chbosky pays homage by having his protagonist read Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Charlie oozes sincerity, rails against celebrity phoniness, and feels an extraliterary bond with his favorite writers (Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Ayn Rand, etc.). But Charlie’s no rich kid: the third child in a middle-class family, he attends public school in western Pennsylvania, has an older brother who plays football at Penn State, and an older sister who worries about boys a lot. An epistolary novel addressed to an anonymous “friend,” Charlie’s letters cover his first year in high school, a time haunted by the recent suicide of his best friend. Always quick to shed tears, Charlie also feels guilty about the death of his Aunt Helen, a troubled woman who lived with Charlie’s family at the time of her fatal car wreck. Though he begins as a friendless observer, Charlie is soon pals with seniors Patrick and Sam (for Samantha), stepsiblings who include Charlie in their circle, where he smokes pot for the first time, drops acid, and falls madly in love with the inaccessible Sam. His first relationship ends miserably because Charlie remains compulsively honest, though he proves a loyal friend (to Patrick when he’s gay-bashed) and brother (when his sister needs an abortion). Depressed when all his friends prepare for college, Charlie has a catatonic breakdown, which resolves itself neatly and reveals a long-repressed truth about Aunt Helen. A plain-written narrative suggesting that passivity, and thinking too much, lead to confusion and anxiety. Perhaps the folks at (co-publisher) MTV see the synergy here with Daria or any number of videos by the sensitive singer-songwriters they feature.
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 1999
ISBN: 0-671-02734-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: MTV Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
It’s the tale of one young man and his choices, which many young readers will appreciate and enjoy.
“The rules: If she hollers, she is mine. If she needs to be changed, she is always mine. In the dictionary next to ‘sitter,’ there is not a picture of Grandma. It’s time to grow up. Too late, you’re out of time. Be a grown-up.” Sixteen-year-old Bobby has met the love of his life: his daughter.
Told in alternating chapters that take place “then” and “now,” Bobby relates the hour-by-hour tribulations and joys of caring for a newborn, and the circumstances that got him there. Managing to cope with support, but little help, from his single mother (who wants to make sure he does this on his own), Bobby struggles to maintain friendships and a school career while giving his daughter the love and care she craves from him at every moment. By narrating from a realistic first-person voice, Johnson manages to convey a story that is always complex, never preachy. The somewhat pat ending doesn’t diminish the impact of this short, involving story.
It’s the tale of one young man and his choices, which many young readers will appreciate and enjoy. (Fiction. YA)Pub Date: June 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-84922-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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