Having hardly aged a day since her last appearance over 20 years ago (Sport, 1979), Harriet M. Welsch again steps into view, notebook in hand, imagination entirely otherwise. With the permission of Louise Fitzhugh’s estate, Ericson brings back all of the gang, even Ole Golly, expertly picks up threads from the first three novels, and adds a tantalizingly rude new age-mate across the street. As Harriet’s still-clueless parents leave for an extended stay in Paris at summer’s end, Ole Golly takes up her old position as governess—but in the throes of marital discord about which she is resolutely tightlipped. What with that mystery, plus the sudden appearance of a secretive, ill-tempered new neighbor, Harriet has plenty of snooping to do—in between helping her gentle friend Sport through a rocky start in public school, and ruminating about love, families, God, psychotherapy, and other preteen concerns. In the end, a memorable Thanksgiving brings revelations, new friendships, and, thanks to a convenient financial windfall (one of several contrivances), a blissful reunion between Ole Golly and her husband. Ericson catches the voices, deadpan humor, and overall tone of the earlier volumes, if not their venturesome treatment of controversial themes, in this safe, comfortable continuation, and her frequent references to past events may tempt readers young (or otherwise) to visit, or revisit, the originals. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32786-2
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
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
“Hear, and listen well, my friends, and I will tell you a tale that has been told for a thousand years and more.” It’s not exactly a rarely told tale, either, though this complete rendition is distinguished by both handsome packaging and a prose narrative that artfully mixes alliterative language reminiscent of the original, with currently topical references to, for instance, Grendel’s “endless terror raids,” and the “holocaust at Heorot.” Along with being printed on heavy stock and surrounded by braided borders, the text is paired to colorful scenes featuring a small human warrior squaring off with a succession of grimacing but not very frightening monsters in battles marked by but a few discreet splashes of blood. Morpurgo puts his finger on the story’s enduring appeal—“we still fear the evil that stalks out there in the darkness . . . ”—but offers a version unlikely to trouble the sleep of more sensitive readers or listeners. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7636-3206-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
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