A beautiful balance of action and warmth.
Raucous adventure abounds in Antil’s (The Long Stem Is in the Lobby, 2013 etc.) heartfelt coming-of-age novel set in upstate New York during the 1950s.
Fans of Antil’s The Pompey Hollow Book Club (2011) will be eager to learn more about the misadventures of their favorite club members in this colorful follow-up novel. It’s the summer before their freshman year of high school, a time when they begin to leave childhood behind but are nonetheless itching for adventure as much as ever. The story is told from the perspective of ghostly Ole Charlie, a kindly neighbor who has passed and is now the group’s guardian angel. Fast-paced and action-packed, the novel follows young Jerry and his friends as they get their first jobs, rescue orphans and down-on-their-luck polio victims, and plan their biggest caper yet to catch a pair of criminals. Though the intrigue surrounding the two escaped criminals and the subsequent plan to flush them out are what pushes the novel forward, its heartbeat lies in the quiet moments that reveal the character of this close-knit community. Following World War II, which forever changed their lives, these communities have emerged stronger than ever. The people work together, care for each other’s kids, rally behind perfect strangers with abounding kindness and believe in the basic good in each person. As the kids of the surrounding communities all come together to protect their towns, a beautiful sense of brotherhood emerges; it’s an uplifting examination of what community really means. History buffs will also appreciate the many referencesto WWII, Gen. Eisenhower and decoy missions in England before D-day. Not without its faults, the novel is sometimes difficult to read. Readers will appreciate the unique language of the time period, but some sentences, especially in opening chapters, are unusually long and need to be read several times for clarity. Nevertheless, it’s a delightful read.
A beautiful balance of action and warmth.Pub Date: March 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-0989304412
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Little York Books
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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Linguistic play, adventure, and gentle lessons combine effectively in this humorous tale.
In this debut fantasy children’s book, a girl and her dog receive an invitation to make a huge contribution to the world of the Hidden Shoreline, learning something in the process.
Trinket, an 11-year-old girl, is walking along the beach on a pleasant day with her dog, Grits, a German shorthaired pointer. She’s mulling over school and an important question: Should she take it easy, as some of her friends do, or keep working hard and trying her best? Grits finds a large blue conch shell, and Trinket is astonished to hear a voice coming from inside it belonging to a Mr. Penpoint. He issues an Official Greeting and an invitation to the Hidden Shoreline: “Everyone I take there has a different adventure, depending on what they need to learn.” Mr. Penpoint shrinks Trinket and Grits and reveals himself to be a penguin with black-and-white plaid feathers. It seems that denizens of the Hidden Shoreline are engaged in an endless battle against Roarers, who come in on the waves and operate “like bad thoughts that want to take over the mind.” Now the Shoreline is in great danger because the Wind Indicator, which gave essential advance notice of Roarer attacks, has run away. The threesome set off to find him before it’s too late. In his book, Strandwitz tells an entertaining fable about the value of persevering against doubts, insecurities, and other harmful thoughts so as to find meaning in life through one’s best efforts. Luckily, comedy and the urgency of a rescue mission prevent the tale from becoming overly preachy. With her moxie, intelligence, and concern for others, Trinket is appealing, and the story’s nonhuman characters are very amusing, with playful names such as General Situation (the starfish in charge of Homeland Security). These characters do, though, face real difficulties, and their feelings are taken seriously. Wald (One Day in the Desert, 2017, etc.) provides well-rendered, charming illustrations that help readers visualize the work’s sometimes-bizarre characters and situations.
Linguistic play, adventure, and gentle lessons combine effectively in this humorous tale.Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73246-581-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Collaborative Publishing Services
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Pirate fans looking for a touch of gross humor in their holiday stories will find this tale right up their alley.
The traditional Clement Clarke Moore Christmas poem gets a swashbuckling twist in this picture book.
The crew members have their boots hung up in the galley and the captain is about to settle in when the ship’s tailor, the poem’s narrator, hears a “clatter” over the waves. It’s One-Eye Redbeard. A disgusting version of Santa, One-Eye arrives at the pirate ship in his own barge pulled by eight sharks (with outlandishly rhyming names). One-Eye wears a shirt, shorts, and sneakers and has a scarred face, a disgusting and possibly moldy beard, no teeth, and a single twinkling eye that promises both mischief and Christmas spirit. While most of the stanzas feel like the familiar rhyme, educator and novelist McWilliams (Diary of a Black Seminole Girl, Ebony Noel, 2016, etc.) departs from the usual story by having poor old One-Eye fall overboard. The tailor rescues him (and the ship’s dreadful cook offers burned broccoli when he’s back on deck). Some of the stanzas are a bit clunky: “One-Eye Redbeard / Could not swim! / I felt s-o-o-o sorry / S-o-o-o sorry for him!” And the illustrations were not available at the time of review. But the tale offers just the right amount of gross comedy to please young readers (One-Eye “burped, belched, and twitched” with his “thumb in his nose”).
Pirate fans looking for a touch of gross humor in their holiday stories will find this tale right up their alley.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 9
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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