The lives of two teenage girls, each seeking a connection with her dead mother, intertwine as they recover from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. When the earthquake strikes, orphan Kate Keely loses her home to fire and flees with her aunt and Irish neighbors. They overcome their considerable problems, and a year later are running a boarding house. Jolie Logan, the sickly daughter of a wealthy doctor, loses her mother in the earthquake and becomes obsessed with restoring their house in her mother’s memory to exactly how it was before the quake. When Jolie needs a companion, Kate comes to live with the difficult girl. Kate’s dream is to visit Ireland, her mother’s home, leaving painful memories of San Francisco behind. Her wish comes true when they go to visit Jolie’s aunt in Ireland, but the trip jeopardizes Jolie’s precarious health. Kate, a personable, self-reliant protagonist, learns through leaving to value her home in San Francisco. Jolie, who struggles with a weak heart and inflamed joints, remains largely self-absorbed until just before the end. Interesting details about the earthquake, the train journey across the country, Ireland, and conditions for women at the time enliven the text. However, the realistic tone shifts jarringly with the introduction of an Irish doctor’s wife who has mystical powers for healing and predicting the future. The story closes on a sentimental note at odds with the earlier straightforward story. An enjoyable read but not in the league with Thesman’s strongest works, such as Rachel Chance (o.p.) and The Rain Catchers (1991). (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-670-89278-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-73343-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
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