Miah’s melodramatic death overshadows a tale as rich in social and personal insight as any of Woodson’s previous books.
In a meditative interracial love story with a wrenching climactic twist, Woodson (The House You Pass on the Way, 1997, etc.) offers an appealing pair of teenagers and plenty of intellectual grist, before ending her story with a senseless act of violence.
Jeremiah and Elisha bond from the moment they collide in the hall of their Manhattan prep school: He’s the only child of celebrity parents; she’s the youngest by ten years in a large family. Not only sharply sensitive to the reactions of those around them, Ellie and Miah also discover depths and complexities in their own intense feelings that connect clearly to their experiences, their social environment, and their own characters. In quiet conversations and encounters, Woodson perceptively explores varieties of love, trust, and friendship, as she develops well-articulated histories for both families. Suddenly Miah, forgetting his father’s warning never to be seen running in a white neighborhood, exuberantly dashes into a park and is shot down by police. The parting thought that, willy-nilly, time moves on will be a colder comfort for stunned readers than it evidently is for Ellie.
Miah’s melodramatic death overshadows a tale as rich in social and personal insight as any of Woodson’s previous books. (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-23112-9
Page Count: 181
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1998
Downing constructs his children's-book debut around an odd, but riveting, premise: a young Colorado orphan finds fame, fortune, and a loving family thanks to a helping hand—literally—from Leonardo da Vinci. Leonard, or "Nard," as he prefers to be called, often finds ingenious ways to cope with his lack of a left hand (he was born that way), but his brain really goes into high gear when a detached hand scuttles up, takes a pencil, and proclaims in mirror writing that it's been waiting 500 years for him to be reincarnated, and now it's time to get down to the business of changing the world. Visions of big bucks and a national tour dance in Nard's head, but the hand, dubbed "Vinci," stubbornly counsels a higher purpose—and displays the speed and cleverness to stay out of Nard's reach until he sees the light. The author surrounds his spirited, basically good-hearted protagonist with an unconventional foster family for a strong, colorful supporting cast, stirs in a generous but not over-ambitious helping of subplots, and brings the tale to a (literally, again) soaring climax in which Nard's human-powered flying machine competes for a hefty prize. The plotting does tend toward the predictable, but it's grand entertainment, with an unalloyed happy ending and a memorable fantasy element to give it a leg up. So to speak. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-07893-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
Known for witty, entertaining fantasies, Ibbotson (Dial-a-Ghost, p. 744, etc.) dispenses with magic wands and mythical creatures here and dishes up her best work yet—a topnotch 1910 adventure featuring exotic, vividly evoked locales, a caricature-rich cast filled with likeable (as well as thoroughly despicable) characters, and enough plot to fill an entire trilogy. Two years after the death of her parents, young Maia departs London’s Mayfair Academy For Young Ladies for Manaus, a remote town on the Amazon where the Carters, distant relatives, have at last been located. With her travels a new governess, Miss Arabella Minton, outwardly a cross between Mary Poppins and Atilla the Hun, inwardly a canny, resourceful, big-hearted sort with sadness in her past. Together, Maia and Miss Minton confront the Carters, as dysfunctional a crew as ever was, and also become involved in rescuing two more young orphans—one a penniless actor, the other a scion of a wealthy British aristocrat’s black-sheep son—from unpleasant fates. While skillfully weaving together numerous plot lines and suspense-intensifying complications—Maia and Miss Minton, for instance, love but do not come to understand or trust each other until nearly the end—the author gives her four central characters the inner stuff to cope with an array of challenging situations, and rewards them all with bright, diverse futures. And, of course, their prejudiced, mean-spirited adversaries get what they deserve in full measure. With a rain forest steeped in beauty and mystery for backdrop, this romp will transport not just Ibbotson’s fans, but legions of Potterites and their ilk as well. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46739-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2001
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