Alice, 12, withdrawn and inarticulate because she's quite deaf, lives in a Catholic orphanage in Troy, N.Y. Unbeknownst to Alice, her truculent twin, Miami, lives across the river in Albany as one of the Shaws' four adopted children. After the girls' similarity causes confusion at a camp where her stay happens to follow Miami's, Alice discovers Miami's existence and seeks her out. Maguire, author of several fantasies, comes into his own with this evocative novel of the late 60's, set in the milieu where he grew up. There's some near-melodramatic suspense (e.g., a fire), but best here are the many characters, all realized in convincing, unique detail—the nuns a rich broth of competence and imperfection, of narrow-mindedness and wisdom; the Shaws, generous but not inexhaustible, strained by the imminent addition of their first biological child to a biracial adoptive family that includes infant twins. When Alice and Miami discover each other, at first everyone is dismayed. The Shaws can't adopt Alice; still, the plans the adults make for the newfound sisters are compassionate as well as businesslike. Even so, the girls, feeling a strong affinity, contrive independently to meet. Following various points of view, the author enriches his third- person narrative with minutiae of the devout Catholicism that suffuses every aspect of his characters' lives, with fresh, vivid (if occasionally overblown) descriptions, and—while centering on the children—with incisive vignettes of the adults and their concerns. Poignant yet bracingly unsentimental, a novel with the clear ring of authenticity. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-689-50590-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
A child finds that being alone in a tiny tropical paradise has its ups and downs in this appealingly offbeat tale from the Australian author of Peeling the Onion (1999). Though her mother is long dead and her scientist father Jack has just sailed off on a quick expedition to gather plankton, Nim is anything but lonely on her small island home. Not only does she have constant companions in Selkie, a sea lion, and a marine iguana named Fred, but Chica, a green turtle, has just arrived for an annual egg-laying—and, through the solar-powered laptop, she has even made a new e-mail friend in famed adventure novelist Alex Rover. Then a string of mishaps darkens Nim’s sunny skies: her father loses rudder and dish antenna in a storm; a tourist ship that was involved in her mother’s death appears off the island’s reefs; and, running down a volcanic slope, Nim takes a nasty spill that leaves her feverish, with an infected knee. Though she lives halfway around the world and is in reality a decidedly unadventurous urbanite, Alex, short for “Alexandra,” sets off to the rescue, arriving in the midst of another storm that requires Nim and companions to rescue her. Once Jack brings his battered boat limping home, the stage is set for sunny days again. Plenty of comic, freely-sketched line drawings help to keep the tone light, and Nim, with her unusual associates and just-right mix of self-reliance and vulnerability, makes a character young readers won’t soon tire of. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-81123-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
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