Like the Jewish God, the story seems almost to have no beginning and no end: a perfectly imperfect slice of life.
“The thing is, I have these spiders in my brain, and sometimes they take over.”
It’s June 1976, and Grape is in trouble. Not his usual brand of getting-kicked-out-of-class trouble, but big, got-suspended, punched-Miss-Roof-in-the-arm trouble. Mrs. C, the principal, is considering transferring him to Riverwash, a school for troubled kids, but she believes Grape is a “good kid” deep down. She gives him a special assignment to write a daily journal reflecting on “his history of getting in trouble,” up to the moment he hit a teacher. So Grape writes. About the spiders in his brain that make him do wild things. About his friends and crushes, tormentors, and travails. About going to camp, arguing with God, and playing dice baseball, the “stupidest game ever invented.” This tale is hilarious, heart-rending, and hair-raising. The son of Argentinean Jews, Grape peppers his rambunctious narration and dialogue with contextually translated Spanish and Hebrew. Each chapter is framed as a discrete journal entry, addressed to the ubiquitous but never-seen Mrs. C. Some chapters are self-contained enough to stand alone, but the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Most characters lack detailed physical descriptions, but their colorful personalities, unique speech patterns, and emotional depth make the world on the page as vivid as our own.
Like the Jewish God, the story seems almost to have no beginning and no end: a perfectly imperfect slice of life. (Realistic fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-947548-61-9
Page Count: 185
Publisher: Fitzroy Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
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.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
SEEN & HEARD
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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