The recent Newbery medalist plunks down two more strong-minded women, this time in an 1849 mining camp—a milieu far removed from the Middle Ages of her first novels, but not all that different when it comes to living standards. Arvella Whipple and her three children, Sierra, Butte, and 11-year-old California Morning, make a fresh start in Lucky Diggins, a town of mud, tents, and rough-hewn residents. It's a far cry from Massachusetts; as her mother determinedly settles in, California rebelliously changes her name to Lucy and starts saving every penny for the trip back east. Ever willing to lose herself in a book when she should be doing errands, Lucy is an irresistible teenager; her lively narration and stubborn, slightly naive self-confidence (as well as a taste for colorful invective: ``Gol durn, rip-snortin' rumhole and cussed, dad-blamed, dag diggety, thundering pisspot,'' she storms) recall the narrator of Catherine, Called Birdy (1994), without seeming as anachronistic. Other characters are drawn with a broader brush, a shambling platoon of unwashed miners with hearts (and in one case, teeth) of gold. Arvella eventually moves on, but Lucy has not only lost her desire to leave California, but found a vocation as well: town librarian. With a story that is less a period piece than a timeless and richly comic coming-of-age story, Cushman remains on a roll. (Fiction. 10- 13)
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1996
ISBN: 0-395-72806-1
Page Count: 195
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The bird’s-eye view into this pivotal moment provides a powerful story, one that adults will applaud—but between the...
The ugly brutality of the Jim Crow South is recounted in dulcet, poetic tones, creating a harsh and fascinating blend.
Fact and fiction pair in the story of Rose Lee Carter, 13, as she copes with life in a racially divided world. It splits wide open when a 14-year-old boy from Chicago named Emmett Till goes missing. Jackson superbly blends the history into her narrative. The suffocating heat, oppression, and despair African-Americans experienced in 1955 Mississippi resonate. And the author effectively creates a protagonist with plenty of suffering all her own. Practically abandoned by her mother, Rose Lee is reviled in her own home for the darkness of her brown skin. The author ably captures the fear and dread of each day and excels when she shows the peril of blacks trying to assert their right to vote in the South, likely a foreign concept to today’s kids. Where the book fails, however, is in its overuse of descriptors and dialect and the near-sociopathic zeal of Rose Lee's grandmother Ma Pearl and her lighter-skinned cousin Queen. Ma Pearl is an emotionally remote tyrant who seems to derive glee from crushing Rose Lee's spirits. And Queen is so glib and self-centered she's almost a cartoon.
The bird’s-eye view into this pivotal moment provides a powerful story, one that adults will applaud—but between the avalanche of old-South homilies and Rose Lee’s relentlessly hopeless struggle, it may be a hard sell for younger readers. (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-78510-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cleareyed, empowering, and hopeful while still frankly tackling sexual harassment.
A group of middle school girls take on harassment despite facing challenges.
Twelve-year-old Hazel Hill has spent seventh grade focusing on how to win the speech contest and how best to ignore Tyler Harris’ incessant talking, until the day Tyler tells her that Ella Quinn, her speech contest nemesis, has a crush on her. No one knows Hazel likes girls, and she doesn’t know what to do with this information about Ella. As it turns out, there’s more Hazel doesn’t know: Tyler has been harassing Ella online. Based on everything Tyler tells Hazel, the two girls, along with Riley Beckett, Ella’s best friend, realize that he’s probably harassed many other girls. When the three try to report Tyler, they find that the adults they approach don’t listen or don’t care. Left with no other options, the girls decide to take matters into their own hands. The serious subject matter this novel covers is mediated well through Hazel’s wry narration: She is funny, smart, and well adjusted even if she hasn’t managed to make friends in middle school. The portrayal of the girls’ concerns is also remarkably realistic, from their own reactions and considerations about when to speak up or remain silent to the varied and sometimes-disappointing responses of their parents and teachers. All main characters are assumed to be White.
Cleareyed, empowering, and hopeful while still frankly tackling sexual harassment. (notes) (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-66470-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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