Young Cat, red-haired and full of curiosity, lives at the Theater Royal in Drury Lane, having been abandoned there as a wee babe and raised by the theater folk and Mr. Sheridan, the owner. Golding surrounds Cat with colorful characters. The butcher boy, also a boxer, heads up a gang that rivals that of evil Billy Boil. Johnny draws revolutionary cartoons and has a secret. The music master’s protégé, freed slave Pedro, plays the violin like an angel and becomes Cat’s partner in adventures. There are boxing and gang fights and pawnshops and a terrible jail and a lively pair of noble siblings who fall in with Cat; there are overheard conversations—like the one about a hidden diamond…. The characterization tends to the sketchy and offhand, but the story itself plunges headlong from the theater into 1790s-era London’s muddy streets and silken drawing rooms. Readers will be heartened to know that this is the first of a projected quartet (although it eschews a cliffhanger ending). Winner of the 2006 Smarties Prize. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59643-351-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2008
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Sofia, growing up in an urban Latino neighborhood in McAllen, Texas, has a chance to attend an expensive boarding school in Austin on scholarship. Like her father, Sofia lives the life of the mind, rich with story and possibility. How can she convince her mother to let her take this opportunity? By learning to dance and showing her that she can leave home and still learn to become a good comadre. Canales, the author of the story collection Orange Candy Slices and Other Secret Tales (2001), is a graduate of Harvard Law School, suggesting that Sofia’s story at least closely parallels her own. She is an accomplished storyteller, though not yet, perhaps, a successful novelist. The episodic narrative has disconcerting leaps in time at the beginning, and a sense of completion, or a moral displayed, at several points throughout—all lacking the tension to carry the reader forward. This said, the characters and setting are so real to life that readers who connect with Sofia at the start will find many riches here, from a perspective that is still hard to find in youth literature. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2005
ISBN: 0-385-74674-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2005
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY
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BOOK REVIEW
It’s 1949, and 13-year-old Francine Green lives in “the land of ‘Sit down, Francine’ and ‘Be quiet, Francine’ ” at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles. When she meets Sophie Bowman and her father, she’s encouraged to think about issues in the news: the atomic bomb, peace, communism and blacklisting. This is not a story about the McCarthy era so much as one about how one girl—who has been trained to be quiet and obedient by her school, family, church and culture—learns to speak up for herself. Cushman offers a fine sense of the times with such cultural references as President Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, Montgomery Clift, Lucky Strike, “duck and cover” and the Iron Curtain. The dialogue is sharp, carrying a good part of this story of friends and foes, guilt and courage—a story that ought to send readers off to find out more about McCarthy, his witch-hunt and the First Amendment. Though not a happily-ever-after tale, it dramatizes how one person can stand up to unfairness, be it in front of Senate hearings or in the classroom. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-50455-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
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