Twelve-year-old Rachel, devastated to learn of her father’s impending nuptials to the local school teacher, devises a cunning plan to drive her away. The story takes place at the end of the 19th century in the Dakotas, where a yearlong drought has devastated the family farm. The extreme shortage of water compels their father to send Rachel and her brother to Atlanta to stay with their aunt. Although their mother died several years earlier, a discovery of her letters about her courtship and early marriage while staying in her childhood home reawakens the pain of losing her. Rachel is shocked when, close on the heels of these revelations, their father declares his intent to remarry. The plot moves in a predictable fashion; Rachel’s anger manifests itself in a rash act, resulting in sobering consequences that in turn calm her raging emotions and enable her to welcome her stepmother with equanimity. Rachel’s budding talent as an artist, inherited from her mother, lifts this tale beyond the ordinary. Love’s (I Remember the Alamo, 1999) descriptions of Rachel’s artistry give readers a view of the world from an artist’s perspective: “In the background was Mama’s grave, a green rectangle beneath the shady poplar trees. I’d painted the river and the sheep grazing in a spring meadow, and the brown ribbon of road unspooling toward the horizon.” Love handles the emotionally charged subject with compassion tempered with honesty; there are no saints here, adult or child, just raw feelings that will strike a sympathetic chord in reader’s hearts. An absorbing period piece addressing a universal theme with which contemporary readers can readily identify and which is spared mediocrity by Love’s eloquent prose. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: April 15, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1488-4
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
Matthew (``Gopher'') Goff is being victimized by the fifth- grade bully, who daily steals his milk money. But when Fletcher also steals the $3.00 the class has entrusted to Gopher to buy supplies to make their teacher a super-special valentine, Gopher is finally forced to stand up to him. Fletcher's bark turns out to be worse than his bite; he even helps Gopher make the valentine—a praiseworthy reconciliation, but not very believable, with insufficient motivation for the characters' sudden changes in attitudes and behavior. Timorous Gopher becomes not only brave but reckless; and when Fletcher backs down, Gopher forgives him far too readily, considering how long he's been humiliated and frightened by the bully. Not likely to ring true to its audience. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-670-84839-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992
Clark returns—with Sarah and his best friend Frog—for another ``Sarah Capshaw Mystery.'' When the three come across a Frankenstein robot in a barn, the discovery that it belongs to a toy inventor initially squashes Sarah's hopes for a monstrously good mystery. Then the friends find themselves in the middle of industrial espionage, with one toy manufacturer seeking information about the inventor's next creation in order to cash in on its potential. The kids' efforts run parallel to a private investigator's; this ``case'' probably would have been solved without Sarah's work and enthusiasm. Still, perhaps mystery fans are never too young to learn about the world of corporate dirty tricks, and the plotting, if without much panache, is sturdy. Periodic b&w drawings show the sleuths in action and root the high-stakes intrigue in a more homespun reality. (Fiction. (9-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-525-65115-2
Page Count: 122
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1993
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