Masquerading as a report on home schooling, a tale of father- daughter conflict played out over eighth-grade English and math. Schoolteacher-turned-writer Riley kept his daughter Gillian home from school, intending to redirect her priorities from socializing to studying and transform her failing grades into an appreciation for learning. When the year began, the relationship between father and daughter was adversarial at best: ``Gillian and I were Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert...Professor Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes...Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, child and parent, each trapped on the opposite side of the Force.'' Riley pleads guilty to temporary insanity in one demonstration of tough love: Angry over something he no longer remembers, he abandoned Gillian on a lonely road, expecting her to apologize and plead to return home. Gillian called his bluff and set off down the road, and it was Dad who apologized and pleaded. Determined to keep his cool at least during school hours, Riley launched the school year with a genial lesson in bread-making accompanied by music from Phantom of the Opera. Gillian drew her line in the sand—she would bake the bread but not eat it. In fact, these two stubborn people worked hard at both school and understanding each other. Lessons learned from books (The Diary of Anne Frank), movies (Boyz 'N the Hood), computers, daily newspapers, a family trip to Europe, and, yes, pages of math problems shaped both father and daughter. The year ended with Gillian ready to move on to the real world. Intelligent commentary on education, politics, and the problems that adolescents face—with excerpts from Gillian's journal—make this more than a he said/she said document. By turns wry, witty, sometimes wise, but resolutely outspoken, this volume brings father and daughter face to face as people, not icons in a Freudian myth.
Pub Date: Aug. 23, 1994
ISBN: 0-395-68719-5
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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