A powerful novel explores the toll that abduction by a non-custodial parent takes on one girl's identity. Elsie McPhee's narration quickly cues the reader to the oddness of her life. She lives in an anonymous apartment with her brother Tommy, forbidden by her mother to leave the building or to form relationships with anyone. When Elsie disobeys to play with the new neighbors, her mother yanks the family away to yet another anonymous apartment in yet another town. Flashbacks flesh out the story: Elsie is really L.C. (Linda Clay) McGee, and her parents divorced when they disagreed about the appropriateness of seeking help for her slow, unusually withdrawn little brother. For the past four years, since their mother snatched them from a playground, the little family has been on the move, and Elsie/L.C. has suppressed memory of her earlier life. A crisis in Tommy's health and her growing understanding of their mother's fundamental instability prompt Elsie to seek help and turn her mother in. Rodowsky (Spindrift, 2000) avoids an easy ending, continuing the novel past the children's reunion with their father and tackling the difficulties the girl—she renames herself Clay—faces in returning to her former life and coming to grips with her brother's autism. The novel has many of the characteristics of a movie-of-the-week and secondary characters tend toward one-dimensionality, but strong storytelling and the convincing exploration of Clay's confusion as she confronts her tremendous fear of and simultaneous intense love for her mother save it from triteness. (Fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: March 13, 2001
ISBN: 0-374-31338-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Banks (Baboon, 1997, etc.) pens a fast-paced novel about a hero to whom many children will relate: Howie, a real worrier. Starting a new school gives Howie pause, and without actually planning it, he convinces his new classmates that he is secret Agent Bean Burger, sent by the principal to ferret out crimes in the classroom, including “copying, nail-biting, gum-chewing,” and more. He ends up with a real mystery to solve: Who is putting gum in the water fountains? The problem with being Agent Bean Burger is that Howie has two new worries—that he’ll be exposed, and whether his classmates like him, or just Agent Bean Burger? Howie learns to be his true, worried self, his teacher is understanding, and his classmates like him just the way he is. This transitional chapter book rolls pleasantly along; it’s amusing, with no surprises, and children may find it comforting. (b&w illustrations) (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-33500-1
Page Count: 89
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
IN THE NEWS
In pre-Civil Rights rural Alabama, Francie goes to school and works, helping her mother as a maid for white families in town. Her father has gone to Chicago to find work and has promised to send for them, but he keeps postponing it. Meanwhile, Jesse, a boy whom she has tutored in school, is unjustly accused of attacking a white man, and Francie’s efforts to help him endanger her family and the other families around her. Francie’s life is portrayed as one of cruel poverty, and her patient, stalwart mother is devastated when the latest letter from her father disappoints them yet again. After the family’s long, agonizing wait, repeatedly emphasized, it’s quite a surprise—to readers, too—when her mother suddenly comes up with the money, not only to move the whole family to Chicago, but to buy them new clothes before they leave. This inexplicable ending mars an otherwise compelling story about the sheer exhaustion, fear, and frustration suffered by many poor African-Americans in the rural south. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-32456-5
Page Count: 199
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
