Lacy Mullins, 13, is a talented swimmer whose brother has AIDS. Although Jack hasn't lived at home since he left for college when Lacy was five, the siblings are close. Whenever he came to visit, he brought her something special, and they corresponded faithfully. Lacy knew Jack was gay and accepted it. But now Jack wants to move back home to spend his last months with his family. His lover, Lincoln, has already died from AIDS, and Jack is sick and lonely. Lacy is glad to have Jack at home, but his sickness is painful for him and his family. Lacy must also, at her parents' request, keep Jack's illness a secret, and that proves too much for her to handle. When she finally tells people, however, they are not all supportive. Even Lacy's best friend, Emma, must overcome her initial fear of AIDS before she and Lacy can continue their close friendship. And Lacy finds that, for the first time in her life, she can't swim. She drops from the team as Jack's condition worsens. When he dies, she lets his tortured body go but feels that he is still with her. She returns to swimming with a new resolve: Now she is swimming for Jack, too. Although oddly distanced at times, newcomer Davis's story is sensitive and informative. Jack is never fully developed as a character, but Lacy will speak to readers who have experience with AIDS patients, fears about the virus, or just want straight answers. (Fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-689-31922-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
The poem/novel ends with only a trace of hope; there are no pat endings, but a glimpse of beauty wrought from brutal reality.
Billie Jo tells of her life in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl: Her mother dies after a gruesome accident caused by her father's leaving a bucket of kerosene near the stove; Billie Jo is partially responsible—fully responsible in the eyes of the community—and sustains injuries that seem to bring to a halt her dreams of playing the piano.
Finding a way through her grief is not made easier by her taciturn father, who went on a drinking binge while Billie Joe's mother, not yet dead, begged for water. Told in free-verse poetry of dated entries that span the winter of 1934 to the winter of 1935, this is an unremittingly bleak portrait of one corner of Depression-era life. In Billie Jo, the only character who comes to life, Hesse (The Music of Dolphins, 1996, etc.) presents a hale and determined heroine who confronts unrelenting misery and begins to transcend it.
The poem/novel ends with only a trace of hope; there are no pat endings, but a glimpse of beauty wrought from brutal reality. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 978-0-590-36080-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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