by Kevin Henkes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999
Henkes (Sun and Spoon, 1997, etc.) peoples this oblique tale of a family healing an extended rift with his usual cast of disarming characters. Ben doesn’t remember the shop accident in which he lost a finger ten years before, nor Uncle Ian, his baby-sitter at the time, who dropped out of touch soon afterward; when an invitation from Ian to pay a visit comes out of the blue, Ben is intrigued enough to persuade his still-angry mother to take him. Ian, as it turns out, lives in apple and peach orchards with an expectant wife and neighbors who include lively five-year-old twins Kale and Elka, and their older sister, Lynnie. Sharing baby-sitting duties, Ben and Lynnie hit it off instantly. Amid quiet discussions about blame and guilt the author gives everyone immediate worries; a sonogram shows the baby in a breech position, and, following a casual remark of Ben’s, Kale climbs a tree and then falls, breaking an arm and a leg. The story is constructed of deft characterizations and pleasing, unforced symmetries. Ben’s remorse for being at least indirectly responsible for a child’s injury, of course, echoes Ian’s, but other parallels spin out and curve back toward resolution. It’s a beguiling story, with near tragedies, happy endings, and clear insight into the hearts of adults and children. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16733-0
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
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by Kate DiCamillo ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001
Themes of freedom and responsibility twine between the lines of this short but heavy novel from the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (2000). Three months after his mother's death, Rob and his father are living in a small-town Florida motel, each nursing sharp, private pain. On the same day Rob has two astonishing encounters: first, he stumbles upon a caged tiger in the woods behind the motel; then he meets Sistine, a new classmate responding to her parents' breakup with ready fists and a big chip on her shoulder. About to burst with his secret, Rob confides in Sistine, who instantly declares that the tiger must be freed. As Rob quickly develops a yen for Sistine's company that gives her plenty of emotional leverage, and the keys to the cage almost literally drop into his hands, credible plotting plainly takes a back seat to character delineation here. And both struggle for visibility beneath a wagonload of symbol and metaphor: the real tiger (and the inevitable recitation of Blake's poem); the cage; Rob's dream of Sistine riding away on the beast's back; a mysterious skin condition on Rob's legs that develops after his mother's death; a series of wooden figurines that he whittles; a larger-than-life African-American housekeeper at the motel who dispenses wisdom with nearly every utterance; and the climax itself, which is signaled from the start. It's all so freighted with layers of significance that, like Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue (2000), Anne Mazer's Oxboy (1995), or, further back, Julia Cunningham's Dorp Dead (1965), it becomes more an exercise in analysis than a living, breathing story. Still, the tiger, "burning bright" with magnificent, feral presence, does make an arresting central image. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-0911-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Irene Smalls ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999
There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. Putting first things first, they tidy up the house, with an unheralded sense of purpose motivating their actions: “Then we clean, clean, clean the windows,/wipe, wipe, wash them right./My dad shines in the windows’ light.” When their work is done, they head for the park for some batting practice, then to the movies where the boy gets to choose between films. After a snack, they work their way homeward, racing each other, doing a dance step or two, then “Dad takes my hand and slows down./I understand, and we slow down./It’s a long, long walk./We have a quiet talk and smile.” Smalls treats the material without pretense, leaving it guileless and thus accessible to readers. Hays’s artwork is wistful and idyllic, just as this day is for one small boy. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-79899-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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