Telling the story of growing up in a tiny Idaho town, Crutcher relates how “an unusual path leads from my life as a coonskin-cap-wearing, pimply-faced, 123-pound offensive lineman with a string of spectacularly dismal attempts at romance, to a storyteller of modest acclaim.” His father was a bomber pilot who had settled into a small-town life of running a wholesale oil and gas business, his mother a ghostly, drinking, chain-smoking presence who died of emphysema. Early scenes read like Gary Paulsen’s Harris and Me (1993) or Jack Gantos’s Jack Henry tales. Now a child-abuse therapist, Crutcher is clear that his awareness of social cruelty began with the adolescent cruelty of high-school life. What might have been just a volume of funny or unsettling anecdotes becomes a candid take on lessons learned, with a clear adult perspective. This is a good read and a deeply moral and philosophical work with important messages about life, death, relativity, heroism, and why bad things sometimes happen to good people. Like Gantos’s Hole in My Life (2002), it tells a strong story to get at strong truths. Essential for the many fans of Crutcher’s work, and new readers will go from here to his fiction. (Nonfiction. YA)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-050249-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
While most teenagers are embarrassed by their parents, 15-year-old Eli has reason: Her extroverted mother works as the French-fry mascot at a local burger joint, and her idea of a mother-daughter outing is to spend the day in burkas to better understand fundamentalist Muslim women. Eli’s relationships with best friend Grace (who has two dads) and boyfriend JG (who has no mother and an alcoholic father) provide perspective, but she still struggles with overwhelming feelings of anger and embarrassment. The situation escalates when Eli discovers mom is having a baby at 42. With a counselor’s help, Eli realizes her anger is rooted in feeling responsible for the infant death of a previous sibling, leading her finally to love and accept her unusual mother. Despite the author’s annoying use of “zz” to mask Eli’s frequent cursing (“shizz,” “fuzz,” etc.), teens will appreciate Sydor’s manic, humorous tone. While Sue Limb and Susan Juby do it better, this stands as a solid chick-lit offering. For maximum laughs, pair with David Lubar’s Sleeping Freshman Never Lie (2005). (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-55453-183-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: KCP Fiction/Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This abridged version of the author’s adult autobiography, A Leaf in Bitter Wind (1998), brings the horror of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution to vivid life by combining clean prose with gritty detail. Ting-Xing Ye was the fourth child born to a family of Chinese rubber merchants in 1952. Her parents died soon after the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” began, leaving upper-class Ting-Xing and her siblings at the mercy of Mao’s Red Guards, lower-class youth who terrorized citizens under the guise of destroying the “Four Olds”: culture, customs, habits and ways of learning. At 16, Ting-Xing was exiled to a prison farm due to a government policy intended to ease urban overpopulation. Frightened and alone, she used her limited free time to study, winning a coveted place at university after six years of hard labor and humiliating interrogation. Teens will be fascinated by the details of Ye’s impoverished adolescence, and inspired by her determination to continue her education against all odds. A worthy addition to the growing canon of Cultural Revolution literature. (Autobiography. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-37987-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2008
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