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THE GOLDEN ASPEN

Name: THE GOLDEN ASPEN
Author: Cheryl A. Price
ISBN: 978-1-4389-6101-9

by Cheryl A. Price ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 2009

A golden nugget.

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This children’s book shows how the smallest act of kindness–a tree sheltering a boy through a cold windy night–leads to that kindness being returned tenfold.

Through words and images that are simple and straightforward, Price unfurls the tale of a downtrodden but caring aspen tree who became â€œking of the mountain forest.” The book begins when the tree was a little one and looked down upon, literally and figuratively, by the bigger scrub oaks and firs. However, the animals of the forest–the snowy white owl, rabbits, marmots, gray wolf, deer and elk, all conjured in bright watercolor brushstrokes–see the aspen and its heart-shaped leaves in a different light. They predict that one day the puny, nondescript tree will grow up to be the envy of all the others. After the passing of several seasons a boy arrives, shivering from the cold, prompting the aspen to rally his forest friends around to keep him warm under its branches. Fifteen years later, that boy returns a man and proclaims, â€œIn the fall of the year, when winter approaches, your leaves will turn golden in color. Your descendents will share this mark of favor.” This is an ingenious ending made visible in the final picture of a mountain covered in lush gold-leaved trees, giving the small reader an actual metaphorical image of kindness–and how it expands and grows–to reflect upon. The book is slow-moving, with none of the thrilling adventure aspects that make up an inordinate amount of children’s books nowadays. Still, the beauty of paying it forward is rendered quite realistically. In an age of high-speed Internet and microwave meals, The Golden Aspen also serves as a pleasant reminder that the best things come to those who wait.

A golden nugget.

Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4389-6101-9

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.