A sensitive coming-of-age tale that shows the rewards of intellectual and personal growth.
A girl visiting her aunt in Texas works to unravel a mystery in this middle-grade novel.
On the eve of summer vacation in 1998, 12-year-old Lea McKinney learns the terrible news: Her parents are separating. The family will be split over the summer since Lea’s mother will be traveling in Europe for a new job while her archaeologist father is away on a dig. T.J., Lea’s younger brother, will stay with their grandparents while Lea goes to her mother’s sister, Aunt Meg, an artist who lives on the Gulf Coast. Lea doesn’t know her aunt very well, and Texas is a long way from her home in Virginia. The small community and the nearby beach invite exploration, however, and Lea soon encounters an intriguing mystery in the dunes. What seems to be the ghost of a girl in a long blue dress appears and then disappears along with little human figures sculpted in the sand. Aunt Meg dismisses Lea at first, but with her new friend, Teri, and other resources, like the local historical society, the girl pieces clues together through research, relics, and stories. In her debut, Kerr offers fine character development via a resilient heroine who responds with growing maturity to daunting adjustments. Adults, too, are capable of growth; the childless Aunt Meg admits honestly that she also needs to change. Lea’s curiosity, intelligence, and hard work as she researches musty archives, joins a dig, and more, are admirable and engaging—a model readers can follow. Another plus is how the search’s practical details and the satisfactions of discovery become as absorbing as the ghost story.
A sensitive coming-of-age tale that shows the rewards of intellectual and personal growth.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9883560-3-0
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Chanter Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Big brother Duane is off in boot camp, and Justin is left trying to hold the parental units together. Fat, acne-ridden, and missing his best friend Ben, who’s in the throes of his first boy-girl relationship with Cass, Justin’s world is dreary. It gets worse when he realizes that all of his mother’s suspicions about his father are probably true, and that Dad may not return from his latest business trip. Surprisingly ultra-cool Jemmie, who is also missing her best friend, Cass, actually recognizes his existence and her grandmother invites Justin to use their piano in the afternoons when Jemmie’s at cross-country practice. The “big nothing” place, where Justin retreats in time of trouble, is a rhythmic world and soon begins to include melody and provide Justin with a place to express himself. Practice and discipline accompany this gradual exploration of his talent. The impending war in Iraq gives this story a definite place in time, and its distinct characters make it satisfying and surprisingly realistic. Misfit finds fit. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-56145-326-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2004
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