Chan (Golden Girl, p. 1219) returns to mythical Elmwood High for this second collection of interrelated short stories. The opening piece, ``Singing the Blues,'' is an enjoyable character sketch of conformist Rachel, 15, who moves in with her friend's family in protest against her unconventional parents. When Rachel recognizes the same selfish interest within herself that drives her friend's yuppified parents, she becomes the prodigal daughter. Chan proves adept at recreating adolescent angst and awkwardness, and her characters grapple with such weighty issues as altruism vs. greed. But the stories also possess a sinister and slightly unnerving quality. Art, the speaker of ``The Boy Most Likely,'' remains as spoiled, snobbish, and egotistical at the end of a community outreach project as he was at the beginning, and therefore, Chan insinuates, a perfect candidate for politics. The female speaker in ``Invisible Girl'' realizes, too late, that her father, a police officer, was correct about her new boyfriend's bad reputation: After foiling an attempted rape, she can only turn to her father for salvation. Family reconciliations are not always possible; in ``Glory Days,'' Michael no longer talks to his father due to a difference of opinion about his father's need to succeed. Certainly this audience needs to know that their actions can have serious and regrettable consequences, but they'll have to look elsewhere for stories of personal salvation and the redemptive power of love. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 1-55074-381-3
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1997
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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