Suzanne David’s father always said, “Obey the rules and no one gets hurt.” But when their French town of Cherbourg is bombed, her neighbor is killed, the Nazis take over, and her family is turned out of their house, whose rules does she obey? When one of the few black families in Cherbourg disappears, Suzanne says to her Papa, “I thought Hitler only hated Jews. I didn’t know he hated black people too.” “Now you do,” he replies. It is this growing awareness, step by step, that leads to Suzanne’s involvement in the French Resistance, becoming number 22, and relaying messages essential to the planning of the D-Day invasion. Based on Bradley’s interviews with the real Suzanne, this is an exciting account of a girl’s coming of age in a scary time. The historical context is neatly woven into the story, so readers will learn about Dunkirk, the fall of Paris, Vichy France, Charles de Gaulle, and D-Day. A terrific companion to Gregory Maguire’s The Good Liar, but for an older audience. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: May 13, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-72961-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2003
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION
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This compelling debut novel set in 1968 Chicago vividly depicts how one African-American family is torn between two opposiing approaches to the Civil Rights Movement. Fourteen-year-old Sam is the son of minister and civil-rights leader Roland Childs, a revered community figure and movement heavyweight whose counsel is sought by Martin Luther King Jr. Sam finds his faith in and respect for his father’s stalwart commitment to nonviolence shaken when he discovers that Stick, his older brother and best friend, is involved with the Black Panthers. Sam is torn between the two people he looks up to most. As he poignantly wrestles over which direction to take, Sam both observes and experiences firsthand the injustice of racism. It takes a terrible tragedy for Sam to choose between “the rock and the river.” Magoon is unflinching in her depictions of police brutality and racism. She offers readers a perspective that is rarely explored, showing that racial prejudices were not confined to the South and that the Civil Rights Movement was a truly national struggle. (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-7582-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2008
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Yep illuminates the Chinese immigrant experience here and abroad in a follow-up to The Serpent's Children (1984) and Mountain Light (1985).
After accidentally killing one of the hated Manchu soldiers, Otter (14) flees Kwangtung for the "Golden Mountain"; he finds his adoptive father Squeaky and Uncle Foxfire in the Sierra Nevada, where thousands of "Guests" are laboriously carving a path for the railroad. Brutal cold, dangerous work, and a harsh overseer take their toll as Squeaky is blinded in a tunnel accident, Foxfire is lost in a storm, and other workers are frozen or half-starved. By the end, toughened in body and spirit, Otter resolves never to forget them or their sacrifices. Foxfire and Otter consider themselves only temporary residents here, preparing for the more important work of modernizing their own country while ridding it of Manchu, Europeans, and, especially, the scourge of opium. America is a dreamlike place; English dialogue is printed in italics as a tongue foreign to most of the characters; and though Otter befriends the overseer's troubled son, such social contact is discouraged on both sides. In a story enlivened with humor and heroism, Yep pays tribute to the immigrants who played such a vital role in our country's history.
Explanatory note; reading list. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-022971-3
Page Count: 276
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1993
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