Some of the lively characters in Just an Overnight Guest (1980) return in this celebration of storytelling and small-town life. Matthew J. Cornelius Carson falls into the mood one night, and his daughter Margie and niece Ethel sit entranced for hours, listening to his tales—about the giant shadow that chased Aunt Daisy the time she dared to do wash on Sunday; about laughing and working together at the old one-room Douglass School; about the time Great-Grandpa Wally came back from the grave, or the unforgettable day Eleanor Roosevelt came through town. Linking these incidents into a single, seamless narrative, Tate notes that all of them are based, at least loosely, on her own memories of growing up in Canton, Missouri. Like Margie and Ethel, readers may be moved to find comparable stories in their own lives. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-553-08384-8
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When Great-uncle Benson roars in on his motorcycle for a long visit, ten-year-old Rachel discovers a soul mate: he listens to her, cares about the things she cares about, and, like her, treats everyone, adult or child, with intelligent respect. He's disturbed, though, that Rachel's family doesn't have sit-down dinners—''How in the world can you have a family, if you don't have family dinner?'' Benson whips up a series of tempting concoctions, and Rachel persuades her parents, and her older brother and sister, to give the custom a try. Cutler infuses her story with the same friendly domestic air that Patricia Maclachlan brings to her writing. The characters here (with the notable exception of the Mrs. Malaprop of a housekeeper—``It's as plain as the nose on your plate'') aren't as eccentric as those in, say, Unclaimed Treasures (1984), but they're distinct and believable, with stories of their own. The experimental meal is a total failure, but the plot takes a gentle twist at the end when Benson, Rachel, and a group of friends and neighbors sit down together the next day over leftovers, proving that the sociability of family-style dinners can survive, even if not in a particular family. Caswell's precise soft-pencil illustrations are unusually perceptive and creatively staged to dramatize relationships. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-32267-8
Page Count: 117
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A biographer of Zora Neale Hurston (Sorrow's Kitchen, 1990) presents 15 eerie tales featuring ghosts, monsters, and ``Gullah Goblins,'' collected in the Caribbean and the southern US by the Federal Writers' Project and other researchers. Lyons admits to having made some changes and adaptations, but the language remains fluid and evocative: when ``Dead Aaron'' comes back from the grave, his widow demands of a suitor, ``How long us got to put up with this dead corpse?...How long us got to set by us own fire, you and me, and him?'' Lyons appends notes and a large bibliography, and urges young people to read or tell these stories with animation—''And don't forget to add the best part...THE SCREAM!'' (Folklore. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1991
ISBN: 0-684-19333-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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