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MORIAH'S POND

Name: MORIAH'S POND
Author: Ethel Footman Smothers
ISBN: 0-679-84504-6

by Ethel Footman Smothers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 1995

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The author of Down in the Piny Woods (1992) returns to the pre-civil-rights era of her youth and a rural family based on her own, marvelously capturing the rhythms and cadence of spoken language in the narrative of ten-year-old Annie Rye. As in the previous work, the theme is racial hostility. Great- grandmother Moriah works for Ralph Daniels, a white landowner; his lonely daughter Betty Jean often makes friendly overtures toward Annie Rye and her older sisters, Brat and Maybaby. Annie Rye views Betty Jean with suspicion, and her antipathy intensifies after Daniels order Moriah to whip Brat—for drinking from his daughter's soda bottle. In the end, advice from older, wiser heads prompts an awkward but sincere reconciliation. The plot may wander, the supporting cast is not well visualized, but Annie Rye's vivid, captivating voice will draw readers as a griot draws listeners. (Fiction. 9-11)

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 1995

ISBN: 0-679-84504-6

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HARD-TIMES JAR
by Ethel Footman Smothers & illustrated by John Holyfield

- BOOK REVIEW
DOWN IN THE PINEY WOODS
by Ethel Footman Smothers

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HOME OF THE BRAVE

by Katherine Applegate ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2007

Despite its lackluster execution, this story’s simple premise and basic vocabulary make it suitable for younger readers...

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From the author of the Animorphs series comes this earnest novel in verse about an orphaned Sudanese war refugee with a passion for cows, who has resettled in Minnesota with relatives.

Arriving in winter, Kek spots a cow that reminds him of his father’s herd, a familiar sight in an alien world. Later he returns with Hannah, a friendly foster child, and talks the cow’s owner into hiring him to look after it. When the owner plans to sell the cow, Kek becomes despondent. Full of wide-eyed amazement and unalloyed enthusiasm for all things American, Kek is a generic—bordering on insulting—stereotype. His tribe, culture and language are never identified; personal details, such as appearance and age, are vague or omitted. Lacking the quirks and foibles that bring characters to life, Kek seems more a composite of traits designed to instruct readers than an engaging individual in his own right.

Despite its lackluster execution, this story’s simple premise and basic vocabulary make it suitable for younger readers interested in the plight of war refugees. (Fiction. 9-11)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-312-36765-7

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LITTLEST ELEPHANT
by Katherine Applegate ; illustrated by Lita Judge

- BOOK REVIEW
POCKET BEAR
by Katherine Applegate ; illustrated by Charles Santoso

- BOOK REVIEW
ODDER
by Katherine Applegate ; illustrated by Charles Santoso

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TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

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At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)