by Laura Geringer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 1991
As she turns 12, Cora finds it increasingly hard to believe that her father, who returned to Greece before she was born, has never communicated with her. Suddenly, reading portents in the ramblings of the street people she and her best friend Charley like to interview, she's sure he's coming. Haunted by dreams in which her hopes are translated into variations on the myth of Europa; disturbed by finding her mother's letters to her father, plus one from him to Cora about which she was never told; discovering that Charley, whom she has always believed to be a straightforward fount of interesting facts, is also deeply distressed by the loss of his father (who died of a brain tumor)- -Cora's image of her father is already being transformed before he turns up in the book's last pages to complete the transformation with a disappointing reality. The events are sparse in this carefully structured, beautifully written story, but Cora's inner life is fascinating, rich with interconnected leitmotifs—jump-rope rhymes, angels and madmen, science and magic, ideas within ideas (such as the clairvoyant ``Lady Moon'' born with ``three veils''). It's a story that, like Paterson's Park's Quest (1988), makes a mother's pain at being abandoned comprehensible without losing focus on its effect on her child; meanwhile, Geringer creates a protagonist of integrity who is assimilating difficult facts about her past while becoming more sensitively attuned to her mother and closest friend. An unusually fine first novel. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1991
ISBN: 0-06-023849-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1991
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by The Brothers Grimm ; adapted by Laura Geringer ; illustrated by Edward S. Gazsi
by John Boyne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2006
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
by Marina Budhos ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2006
Illegal immigrant sisters learn a lot about themselves when their family faces deportation in this compelling contemporary drama. Immigrants from Bangladesh, Nadira, her older sister Aisha and their parents live in New York City with expired visas. Fourteen-year-old Nadira describes herself as “the slow-wit second-born” who follows Aisha, the family star who’s on track for class valedictorian and a top-rate college. Everything changes when post-9/11 government crack-downs on Muslim immigrants push the family to seek asylum in Canada where they are turned away at the border and their father is arrested by U.S. immigration. The sisters return to New York living in constant fear of detection and trying to pretend everything is normal. As months pass, Aisha falls apart while Nadira uses her head in “a right way” to save her father and her family. Nadira’s need for acceptance by her family neatly parallels the family’s desire for acceptance in their adopted country. A perceptive peek into the lives of foreigners on the fringe. (endnote) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-4169-0351-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Ginee Seo/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005
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