When Zack, manager of a fleet of lunch vans, urges his crew to wear T-backs ("a bathing suit that covered as little as it left to the imagination"), Chloa's aunt Bernadette is the one holdout. Chloa, 12, is in Florida for the summer; she's promised her stepdad to help his sister and to "give the unexpected a chance." Construction crews flock to the vans staffed by the shapely conformists; Bernadette's profits fall, and she's demoted to a still less lucrative spot. Meanwhile, Chloâ helps out, and mischievously tries to convince the mildly obnoxious 13-year-old son of one of the T-back wearers that her aunt is a witch; and a right-wing religious group organizes "Citizens Opposing All T- backs" ("COAT"). The plot thickens (rather implausibly) when COAT, failing to enlist Bernadette, demands that she defend herself against their charge of witchcraft. But admirers of Konigsburg won't be surprised to find that that's no more the crux of her novel than the indecent clothing issue. In the end, what Bernadette successfully defends is her right to choose, without explaining. She and Chloa also establish a warm relationship, of value to both, while Chloa learns (like Claudia in From the Mixed-Up Files...) that she's responsible for her own identity. The author's forthright, staccato style and witty descriptions are marvelous; occasional interpolated anecdotes (e.g., a succinct thriller about how Bernadette got her dog; lively precis of Savonarola and Galileo) amplify the theme and characterizations. Offbeat, comic, thought-provoking: a top-notch author at full strength. (Fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 29, 1993
ISBN: 0-689-31855-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fast and victorious.
A kid who grew up with precarious health hungers to bust out of the protected zone that his mother and brother keep him in.
To 12-year-old Levi, born weighing 2 pounds, “the hole in my neck, / the trach tube I needed to breathe, / the medical equipment in the house, / the almost dying, / the surgeries” are stories—not memories. He plans never to be “blue” (breathless) again. Readers new to Levi’s story will share his casualness; House Arrest (2015) readers, however, will remember Levi’s near deaths vividly through the eyes of his brother, Timothy, now 24 but a child back when Levi’s life lay in his hands. First-person free verse effectively conveys Levi’s impatience as he lunges away from “TIMOTHY’S RULES / FOR EVERYDAY / BLAH-BLAHS” by climbing a tree, lying, pranking (he interrupts school events from inside a stolen chicken-mascot costume), and learning to box. Custodial parent Mom doesn’t know he’s boxing, but tough-guy Dad gives permission, applying machismo pressure. Levi himself uses knockouts as a metaphor for strength and success (and happily claims the title of a “man’s man / ladies’ man”). Boxing channels his energy, acuity, and anger and even holds, “like, / beauty.” Tender moments come when Levi, Timothy, and Mom use a journal to write back and forth. Aside from a remark that Dad is “pasty white” and Levi “not,” race and color go unmentioned.
Fast and victorious. (Verse fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6358-1
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Clears the bar for horse fanciers.
Seventh grader Abby St. Clair manages friend drama and competition at school and on her riding team in the lead-up to a big horse show.
In this third series entry (which readers can jump into midstride), Abby sees winning the upcoming horse show at Canterwood Crest Academy in Connecticut as a big step toward her goal of becoming a career equestrian. But conflict with her teammates poses more of an obstacle than her riding skills do. Abby and her enemies on the team, Nina and Selly, had a fight at the last competition and are being closely monitored by their coach, Rebecca. On top of that, Abby’s best friends, Thea and Vivi (established in earlier entries as Korean American and Black, respectively), seem to be excluding her. Abby also initially bungles how she handles her crush on new girl Mila. At least she’s made up with her stepsister, Emery. At Canterwood, Abby meets Sasha Silver, one of her heroes, whose winter riding clinic she applied for—but Sasha reveals that someone tried to sabotage her application. Abby’s team experiences more surprises during the event, setting things up for the next entry. Parents are mostly absent from the narrative; Abby talks to her dad via FaceTime. The dialogue and social media use are realistic, the pacing is snappy, and the equestrian details are accurate. Most characters read white.
Clears the bar for horse fanciers. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781665912990
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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