In a compelling novel, Thesman (The Ornament Tree, 1996, etc.) combines a tale rich in family ties and homey comforts with history that is unsettling and unpleasant. In Depression-era Seattle, Quinn Wagner, 15, copes with a houseful of relatives, a mother in poor health, an older sister who dropped out of school to work, and an exasperating kid brother. Her father, affectionately called Beau John by all, is the emotional linchpin and center of his extended family, his tales and stories cherished by them and his unobtrusive acts of kindness known to the whole neighborhood. But he is away save for one night a week, chasing work. When Quinn overhears a conversation that hints at her father's unsavory and dangerous employment, she keeps it and her growing fears to herself. Knit seamlessly into the tale are rabidly anti-communist Catholics, Hoovervilles where homeless men live in shacks and search futilely for jobs, and Prohibition-era rum-running; meanwhile, Quinn's family and friends deal endlessly but ingeniously with financial hardship. As the summer goes on, Quinn finds her affection growing for her elderly neighbors' nephew and, as she learns of the lengths to which her father has gone to help support them, develops a more complex, less black-and-white outlook regarding Beau John's business. The denouement is satisfying but not simpleit's a small light the future holds. Above all, Quinn's story puts a human face a time most readers only know by its namethe Depression. (Fiction 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-395-80978-9
Page Count: 180
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1997
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
It’s the haunting details of those around Kai that readers will remember.
Kai’s life is upended when his coastal village is devastated in Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami in this verse novel from an author who experienced them firsthand.
With his single mother, her parents, and his friend Ryu among the thousands missing or dead, biracial Kai, 17, is dazed and disoriented. His friend Shin’s supportive, but his intact family reminds Kai, whose American dad has been out of touch for years, of his loss. Kai’s isolation is amplified by his uncertain cultural status. Playing soccer and his growing friendship with shy Keiko barely lessen his despair. Then he’s invited to join a group of Japanese teens traveling to New York to meet others who as teenagers lost parents in the 9/11 attacks a decade earlier. Though at first reluctant, Kai agrees to go and, in the process, begins to imagine a future. Like graphic novels, today’s spare novels in verse (the subgenre concerning disasters especially) are significantly shaped by what’s left out. Lacking art’s visceral power to grab attention, verse novels may—as here—feel sparsely plotted with underdeveloped characters portrayed from a distance in elegiac monotone. Kai’s a generic figure, a coat hanger for the disaster’s main event, his victories mostly unearned; in striking contrast, his rural Japanese community and how they endure catastrophe and overwhelming losses—what they do and don’t do for one another, comforts they miss, kindnesses they value—spring to life.
It’s the haunting details of those around Kai that readers will remember. (author preface, afterword) (Verse fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-53474-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
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