Middle-graders could do much worse.
Robin, a half-Chinese, half-European ballet student, gets a lesson in modern Chinese history from a victim of the Cultural Revolution.
In this new entry to the ballet series that includes Ribbons (1996), The Cook’s Family (1998), and The Amah (1999), Yep continues to explore the disjuncture between modern Chinese-American children and their heritage. When narrator Robin breaks the window of a tropical fish shop, she goes to work there in order to pay the replacement cost, fitting in work between school and rehearsals for her ballet school’s recital of Beauty and the Beast. The irascible manager of the shop is quite lame, but mysteriously knowledgeable about ballet for all his scorn of “bunheads,” and Robin soon learns that Mr. Cao was once Communist China’s most accomplished dancer, only to fall victim to the Red Guard’s brutality. Robin’s growing respect and affection for the old curmudgeon is set against the story of Beauty’s love for the Beast—a hackneyed device, and one that intrudes onto the narrative development of this intergenerational friendship. The story moves along at a brisk clip, comic moments sliding occasionally into slapstick, and then taking a turn to the serious—the relationship between Mr. Cao and Robin’s Russian ballet teacher is a truly touching meeting of battle-scarred Cold War veterans. Ultimately, Robin is herself relatively uninteresting, and the cultural tensions she alludes to never really come across to the reader. It is, nevertheless, an agreeably undemanding read with lots of ballet detail and peopled with memorable secondary characters.
Middle-graders could do much worse. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-23041-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s the fall of 1962. With Soviet missiles in Cuba, a war with Russia seems imminent. Amid community-wide fears of annihilation, Juliet Klostermeyer is experiencing her own personal problem. Her longtime best friend Lowell has decided it is uncool to be friends with a girl. Friendless for the first time, Julia meets Patsy, a spunky Air Force brat new to town. Patsy’s father is a mechanic on the nearby base. When Patsy learns of Lowell’s transgression and his new friends’ attitude that girls are inferior, she suggests a series of tests to prove the boys wrong. As the standoff between Kennedy and Khrushchev intensifies, so does the war between the sexes. When their final test provokes a near-tragedy, both sides come to realize what is really important. The characters are solid and believable, while the dialogue is fresh, poignant and funny. The children’s fear about the end of the world is realistically portrayed, yet Wittlinger never lets it overshadow the good-humored story of friendship. Will appeal to fans of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s The Boys Start the War (1993) and The Girls Get Even (1994). (Historical fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: April 20, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-7101-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Marguerite Henry died barely two years ago, after living the life of which most writers dream: She wrote from the time she was young, her parents encouraged her, she published early and often, and her books were honored and loved in her lifetime. Her hobby, she said, was words, but it was also her life and livelihood. Her research skills were honed by working in her local library, doing book repair. Her husband Sidney supported and encouraged her work, and they traveled widely as she carefully researched the horses on Chincoteague and the burros in the Grand Canyon. She worked in great harmony with her usual illustrator, Wesley Dennis, and was writing up until she died. Collins is a bit overwrought in his prose, but Henry comes across as strong and engaging as she must have been in person. Researchers will be delighted to find her Newbery acceptance speech included in its entirety. (b&w photos, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 10, 1999
ISBN: 1-883846-39-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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