The eighth-graders who appeared in The Trouble with Lemons (1991) are back in a stronger second novel, less freighted with the life conflicts of its adult characters. The theme here is comic, hinging on the pickles that Tyler (privileged only child of a widowed actress) and his slower, marginally more sensible friend Lymie (scion of a farm family in Wakefield, in upstate New York) keep getting into—notably, after carving stone heads in imitation of Badoglio, a revered sculptor who once worked in Wakefield. Teased about their handiwork, the boys throw the two heads into a river, whence they are dredged up and misidentified- -by eminent art critics and community luminaries—as genuine Badoglios. Hayes makes good use of the boys' ensuing moral dilemma, and even better use of its comic possibilities, spinning them out through several surprising reversals. Other events- -especially a Halloween encounter with a vicious neighbor who overreacts to a prank—establish the boys' propensity for trouble, but divert attention from the primary story. Other strengths here are also undermined by faults: groundskeeper Chuckie is a refreshing blend of big brother and father figure to Tyler, but Lymie's apparent talents (consistently misrepresented by his narrator friend) are out of focus; there's some laudably fresh language, and much of the dialogue is snappy and realistic, but it goes on and on. A funny book with real insights, but much in need of pruning. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-87923-881-X
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Godine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1992
At the end of the term, a new student who is black and Vietnamese finds a morsel of hope that she too will find a place in...
This is almost like a play for 18 voices, as Grimes (Stepping Out with Grandma Mac, not reviewed, etc.) moves her narration among a group of high school students in the Bronx.
The English teacher, Mr. Ward, accepts a set of poems from Wesley, his response to a month of reading poetry from the Harlem Renaissance. Soon there’s an open-mike poetry reading, sponsored by Mr. Ward, every month, and then later, every week. The chapters in the students’ voices alternate with the poems read by that student, defiant, shy, terrified. All of them, black, Latino, white, male, and female, talk about the unease and alienation endemic to their ages, and they do it in fresh and appealing voices. Among them: Janelle, who is tired of being called fat; Leslie, who finds friendship in another who has lost her mom; Diondra, who hides her art from her father; Tyrone, who has faith in words and in his “moms”; Devon, whose love for books and jazz gets jeers. Beyond those capsules are rich and complex teens, and their tentative reaching out to each other increases as through the poems they also find more of themselves. Steve writes: “But hey! Joy / is not a crime, though / some people / make it seem so.”
At the end of the term, a new student who is black and Vietnamese finds a morsel of hope that she too will find a place in the poetry. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8037-2569-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2001
An intimate novel that beautifully confronts grief and loss.
It’s 1983, and 13-year-old Indian American Reha feels caught between two worlds.
Monday through Friday, she goes to a school where she stands out for not being White but where she has a weekday best friend, Rachel, and does English projects with potential crush Pete. On the weekends, she’s with her other best friend, Sunita (Sunny for short), at gatherings hosted by her Indian community. Reha feels frustrated that her parents refuse to acknowledge her Americanness and insist on raising her with Indian values and habits. Then, on the night of the middle school dance, her mother is admitted to the hospital, and Reha’s world is split in two again: this time, between hospital and home. Suddenly she must learn not just how to be both Indian and American, but also how to live with her mother’s leukemia diagnosis. The sections dealing with Reha’s immigrant identity rely on oft-told themes about the overprotectiveness of immigrant parents and lack the nuance found in later pages. Reha’s story of her evolving relationships with her parents, however, feels layered and real, and the scenes in which Reha must grapple with the possible loss of a parent are beautifully and sensitively rendered. The sophistication of the text makes it a valuable and thought-provoking read even for those older than the protagonist.
An intimate novel that beautifully confronts grief and loss. (Verse novel. 11-15)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-304742-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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