Lovers of hip, edgy or meta should look elsewhere, but this story carries its own brand of modest delight for the right...
Crammed with incident, yet loose and rambling and without much dramatic arc, this slice-of-life novel, the sixth in the series, charts Willa’s life, loves and personal growth though part of an event-filled summer.
There’s something refreshing and rather fabulous about the slightly dull Willa Havisham books (Willa by Heart, 2008, etc.). They star the nicest, most well-adjusted, dependable 14-year-old in the world, a book-loving girl who does her chores in the family business with good grace, loves the nurturing, community-minded adults in her life and strives to be the best person she can be. She doesn’t wear Jimmy Choos, obsess about her weight or, heaven forbid, smoke (anything); instead she tries to come up with a charitable project that’s really her. Not to say there’s no conflict. Willa wrestles with her feelings about her once-best friend, has minor disagreements with her driven businesswoman mother and is distressed (but also exhilarated) when she finds herself attracted to two boys at the same time. Set in a charming, fictional Cape Cod community, the story strolls along, never generating a great deal of heat or suspense, yet managing to keep readers involved and interested.
Lovers of hip, edgy or meta should look elsewhere, but this story carries its own brand of modest delight for the right reader. (Fiction. 10-15)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-545-09405-4
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
“Bad choice, good choice always come back—like ghosts.” Avvy Go’s mother’s words haunt her. Avvy Go, a student at Oak Ridge High School, lives in a community of immigrants across a railway bridge separating her from the older, richer part of town. Her parents run a Chinese take-out restaurant at the food court, where Avvy works, but she wants to fit in at school, to cross that bridge separating the two communities and cultures. She’s tried the disappearing act, keeping to herself—trying to fit in by not being seen—but realizes that “if you act like a nobody, that’s what people see. No body.” But to fit in, she makes a series of bad choices—stealing, lying and befriending her sister’s enemy. A good girl with a powerful conscience, Avvy consults “The Oracle” in her school newspaper, who advises her to face up to her mistakes. Though Avvy’s first-person voice is didactic, her story ends realistically, with no simple solutions—just a determination to get on with her life, as complicated as it may be. Lee’s prose in this high-interest/low–reading level novel for teens is simple, adorned with an occasional glittering phrase: Avvy’s brother, in his new, too-big white karate outfit, “drooped like an ice cream melting on a stick.” A brisk tale with an important message. (Fiction. 10-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55277-538-7
Page Count: 152
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
Thirteen-year-old Sarah’s new classmates at Glades Academy don’t welcome her—she’s there on scholarship, and her mother works in the school cafeteria. On a field trip to the Everglades, Sarah seizes the chance to get away by sneaking off on an airboat ride through the saw-grass marsh with the guide’s 15-year-old son, Andy, taking only her backpack, a camera and some mosquito spray. A stop at a remote fishing camp ends in disaster when the boat sinks, and they’re stranded, surrounded by alligators and snakes, with half a bottle of Gatorade and a can of SPAM. Andy knows what they’re up against, but Sarah refuses to believe that they must leave the tiny island to trudge the 10 miles back to land. Wildlife and vegetation are vividly described; Sarah’s fear is palpable in scenes of near-disaster, and readers will cheer when she and Andy make it safely out of the swamp after five days. However, the first-person narrative is uneven, marred by gaps that make it hard to fully visualize some situations, and there are too few transitions to support some rather sudden instances of closeness between Sarah and Andy. Rorby cleverly offers only subtle hints that Sarah is African-American and Andy is white until late in the story, adding depth to this survival story framed within the story of an outsider. (Adventure. 12-14)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7613-5685-1
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
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