NICKY'S LOPSIDED, LUMBY BUT DELICIOUS ORANGE

by Green. Phyllis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1978

Like the title, excessive in every area except common sense. Sixth-grader Nicky doesn't like being ""descried and divorced and married to a priest""--by which she means that she identifies with Lisa, her bantering artist mother, whose new husband Alex steals in at night because he hasn't yet broken with the Church. Alex is loathe to break with the Church because he doesn't want to leave his work with Southern California migrants. On her own, Nicky's plagued by an inability to say No to sniveling classmate Ernestine, who in these pages cons her out of a new Donald Duck watch, Alex's gift, and her permission slip for the class zoo trip. On the second occasion Lisa's outrage and the principal's inconvenience send Nicky to bed for two days. Getting only second prize in an art contest breaks her up too. Ditto getting a rock-bottom grade (like--silly test--everyone else) on a math paper. Why the overreaction? For the same reason that Nicky won't, as Lisa's been urging, paint a natural, irregular orange: she wants to be perfect. She wants to be perfect so no one will ever leave her again, like her father (whom she can't remember) did. Then when it looks as if Alex has, we know she's cured because she paints an imperfect orange for him. But he, it appears, can have his marriage and his migrants; and the three pack up, imperfectly happy, for the Southern California camp. A dumb, trendy book that's also, in spots (where ill-favored children appear), rather nasty.

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION