The trouble with most of the new YA novels dealing with sex is that seventeen-year-old behavior, presuming seventeen-year-old feelings, is depicted in stories read chiefly by twelve-year-olds—and, in truth, written at their level. Steptoe's thin but pointed first novel is different. Marcia is only fourteen, and though her boyfriend Danny is pushing her to have sex she herself feels unready; you can see other girls her age empathizing totally and those a little younger relating with understanding. Marcia makes two impassioned, soapbox speeches—one on aggression and manhood to her boyfriend, one on birth control to her mother—which express more confusion than she realizes (and perhaps more than Steptoe realizes), and feminists might well fault the author not only for the girls' preoccupation with boys and clothes, but, more important, for his assumption that eventual capitulation is inevitable. (Would it really be worse to lose Danny?) To us, Marcia's mother is a bit too hasty with the same assumption—but no one can fault her alacrity in fixing her daughter up with contraceptives. And, whatever we adults make of its message, Marcia—with its modified black English, sassy dialogue, and underlying earnestness—is an issue book attuned to its intended audience.
Pub Date: April 26, 1976
ISBN: 0140346694
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1976
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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