In 1935, sixth-grader Talmadge McLinn (see also Stories from the Blue Road, 1982) and his family, having lost their Tennessee farm, are working on an Arkansas cotton plantation. Handicapped by a club foot, and his ``hillbilly'' background, Talmadge wins acceptance from his peers and the right to stay in school in the face of opposition from his mother and resentful older brother Dwight. When little sister Missy is stricken with polio, the family recognizes that another move, this time to Memphis, will benefit Missy and be good for them all. Papa's anger and frustration, older sister Roseanne's piety, and Dwight's hostility are all skillfully drawn. The tension between illiterate Mama, clinging to their Tennessee past, and determined Talmadge, looking to a future in medicine, is particularly effective. Crofford's spare prose evokes a vivid sense of time and place. She portrays the struggle for survival without sentimentality. A well-wrought slice of rural Depression life. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: April 12, 1994
ISBN: 0-87614-808-9
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A brisk but thorough and informative history of the Lakota (Teton Sioux), with a glance at the present: How they got to the Great Plains, life before and after the advent of horses, and various ceremonies (though the deep religious motivation characteristic of these people is not conveyed). A brief detailing of struggles with white men includes the greats: Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Big Foot. There's also a quick look at the massacre at Wounded Knee and at the Ghost Dance (its universal appeal and hysteria are explained only by saying that it ``renewed the hopes of many Native Americans''). Wolfson explains that half the Teton Sioux are now on reservations and that life ``can be hard,'' but that old ceremonies are still maintained despite modern ways. The legend of White Buffalo Woman is included as a last chapter. Illustrations range from garishly tinted engravings to photos of crafts and of chiefs; only two depict the present. List of important dates; glossary; excellent bibliography and index. (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1993
ISBN: 1-56294-077-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
Poor little rich children, 1903-style: When Father inherits Uncle Harry's fortune and Fifth Avenue mansion, he moves his children from their farm near Albany, where they've been allowed to run free, to New York, where he's preoccupied with angling for a partnership in a prestigious law firm. Mother, who also has new social responsibilities, hires a ``nurse,'' a humorless martinet who does her best to squelch any creativity with demands for order and cleanliness. Finding a concealed attic room, Freddie and Katherine channel their natural ebullience into furnishing it with items ``borrowed'' downstairs (causing consternation, since some are valuable) and acquire some wild pets: a rabbit, a mouse. Although the many period details (especially of the opulent turn-of-the-century lifestyle and the children's regimentation) are well integrated, the story is overlong—the incidents establishing the situation and Miss Pritt's disagreeable character grow repetitious. Still, there are some entertaining scenes (notably one with the kids under a dinner-party table); and, to first novelist Yektai's credit, the inevitable discovery of the room leads to deserved blame as well as some healthy, and loving, restructuring of the family arrangements, all nicely presaged—especially by Mother's unfashionable assertiveness and her unhappiness with being denied access to her own children. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 18, 1992
ISBN: 0-531-05456-X
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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