An Israeli author debuts in English on this side of the Atlantic with a sad but not heavy tale of life and death on the West Bank. His knee shattered in a bicycle accident, Samir is apprehensive about being sent to what he calls the “Jews’ hospital” for an operation. As the surgery is delayed, then followed by a course of physical rehabilitation, Samir forms loose bonds with the other patients in the children’s ward. Meanwhile, in almost an offhand way (“I remember the first time they searched our house”), he paints a grim picture of life in the occupied zone: the privation, the fear, and the devastation of losing his younger brother, Fadi, to violence. Ultimately, wardmate Yonatan, son of an astronomer, shows Samir ways of looking beyond the boundaries of his war-ravaged world, and Carmi lightens the general tone with a final scene in which Samir and Tzahi, a hyperactive tormentor, bury the hatchet beneath twin streams of urine (evidently a required scene in children’s fiction from overseas). Like Arno Bohlmeijer’s Something Very Sorry (1996), or Bruce Brooks’s Vanishing (1999), this hospital story will leave readers pondering the resilience of children in the face of tragedy. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-13504-4
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
PLB 0-7358-1106-7 Harry’s Got A Girlfriend! (61 pp.; $13.95; PLB $13.88; Mar.; 0-7358-1105-9; PLB 0-7358-1106-7): A book that takes a typical childhood dilemma and sugarcoats it beyond recognition. When Harry is invited to Michelle’s birthday party, his friends tease him so much that he decides not to go. His father makes a deal with him: if he’s not having a good time, he can call home for a ride. Harry is the only boy at the party, but he has a great time eating, playing, and flying a kite. When his friends find out how much fun he had, they plead to go along the next time, and promise that the teasing will stop. Most readers will find this bland and unrealistic; the actions of all of the children don’t ring true, and the pictures, all smiles and sunshine, match the text all too well. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7358-1105-9
Page Count: 61
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
PLB 0-7868-2125-6 As is true for Pam Conrad’s Tub People, the events in a matryoshka doll’s life depend on external manipulations and circumstances; in this case, it makes the story of a perilous journey fall somewhat flat. A set of the nesting dolls is carved in a Russian village and then sent to a toy shop in America. The outer doll, Anna, has been instructed by the maker to watch over her siblings—“Keep your sisters safe inside you”—but there is nothing she can do when the smallest doll, Nina, is accidentally brushed off the counter and unceremoniously kicked out the door. It is an odyssey in which she has absolutely no active part, nor does she have reactions, for all she possesses is a blank matryoshka face. In the meantime, a young girl who has bought the rest of the set on sale charmingly tucks a little wad of cotton into the next-to-smallest doll so she won’t feel empty. Brown’s atmospheric but docile watercolors often view the matryoshka dolls from a distance, furthering the sense that the story is about events surrounding the dolls, instead of the dolls themselves. An author’s note on the history of matryoshkas is a welcome touch. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7868-0153-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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