A buoyant, beautiful explication of cultural adjustment as seen through a child’s eyes.
In this eloquent verse memoir, a young girl’s understanding of home evolves.
Kurtz offers readers a deeply personal vision of her unique childhood. Thanks to her World War II veteran father, a Protestant minister, she was raised in Maji, a small village in the mountains of Ethiopia, where she was home-schooled by her mother. A white girl born in America, young Janie had a happy and full life in Ethiopia. She played with her four sisters, concocted schemes to procure a pet, and reveled in sensory experiences specific to her rural East African childhood—a misty waterfall, aromatic spices, sour breads, and encounters with wild animals. At the same time, she remained conscious of her parents’ concerns, especially her mother’s anxiousness as her belly grew with a new pregnancy. Jane, in turn, began to worry that change was imminent—and it was soon confirmed that the family would return to America for a year. The memoir’s latter half chronicles their long journey to their temporary home in Idaho, where Jane entered third grade and experienced a deep sense of displacement: “In Boise, / I look like I belong. / I sound like I belong. / But I’m different, too. / Different on the inside.” Free verse perfectly captures Janie’s thought processes—wistful, scattered, at once self-centered and keenly attuned to others’ emotions. This youthful perspective makes Kurtz’s recollections from years ago feel fresh and immediate.
A buoyant, beautiful explication of cultural adjustment as seen through a child’s eyes. (Verse memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781960803207
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Catalyst Press
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless.
Tales of a fourth grade ne’er-do-well.
It seems that young Jordan is stuck in a never-ending string of bad luck. Sure, no one’s perfect (except maybe goody-two-shoes William Feranek), but Jordan can’t seem to keep his attention focused on the task at hand. Try as he may, things always go a bit sideways, much to his educators’ chagrin. But Jordan promises himself that fourth grade will be different. As the year unfolds, it does prove to be different, but in a way Jordan couldn’t possibly have predicted. This humorous memoir perfectly captures the square-peg-in-a-round-hole feeling many kids feel and effectively heightens that feeling with comic situations and a splendid villain. Jordan’s teacher, Mrs. Fisher, makes an excellent foil, and the book’s 1970s setting allows for her cruelty to go beyond anything most contemporary readers could expect. Unfortunately, the story begins to run out of steam once Mrs. Fisher exits. Recollections spiral, losing their focus and leading to a more “then this happened” and less cause-and-effect structure. The anecdotes are all amusing and Jordan is an endearing protagonist, but the book comes dangerously close to wearing out its welcome with sheer repetitiveness. Thankfully, it ends on a high note, one pleasant and hopeful enough that readers will overlook some of the shabbier qualities. Jordan is White and Jewish while there is some diversity among his classmates; Mrs. Fisher is White.
Though a bit loose around the edges, a charmer nevertheless. (Memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64723-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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