Revisiting characters from The Cook’s Family (1998), Yep again explores personal and cultural conflicts arising between the generations in a Chinese-American family. Suddenly saddled with caring for four younger siblings after a wealthy businessman hires her widowed mother as a governess—or amah—for his daughter, Stephanie, Amy Chin is forced to miss several ballet rehearsals for Cinderella, to listen to glowing accounts of Stephanie’s sophistication, and to accept expensive clothing and other gifts from her. While gaining new insight into how Cinderella’s stepsisters must have felt, Amy’s understandable resentment is compounded by the news that Stephanie will be moving in while her father is away on a trip. Yep builds that feeling to fever pitch, then dispels it by casting Stephanie as a lonely child hurt by one parent’s death and the other’s neglect; becoming friends, Stephanie and Amy clear the air and mend some fences with their well-meaning parents in a climactic face-off. The characters, most of them familiar from previous appearances, are distinct if not particularly complex, the San Francisco setting is vividly drawn, and the issues are laid out in plain terms and tidily resolved. It’s formulaic, but not entirely superficial. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23040-8
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A teenager suffers through her parents’ separation in this smoothly stylized, if conventional, debut. Aurora’s world comes crashing down when she catches her artist father nuzzling a model. Rory, a talented artist herself, furiously burns her sketchbook; suddenly he’s gone, leaving Rory and her mother wallowing in teary guilt, sending back a letter with lines that infuriate: “one day you’ll understand,” and “someday, when you’re older . . . “ Rory stops all painting and drawing, and curls up around the hurt, stonewalling even her best friend, Nicky. Rory’s almost continual awareness of light and color gives her a convincing artist’s voice, and Mack sets her back on her feet in the end, with the help of time, Nicky’s loyalty, and a startling gift from her father: her charred sketchbook, rescued and repaired both as a sign of his love, and to remind her to believe in herself. Psychological insight here is but skin deep, and the characters play it pretty close to type, but readers may be affected by the story’s overall emotional intensity. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-11202-8
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-7868-2389-5 From Griffin (The Other Shepards, 1998, etc.), a poignant, perceptive tale of a teenager on a self-destructive spiral, seen through the eyes of his younger, more grounded stepbrother. Written as a monologue Ben addresses to his older stepbrother Dustin (“I never met anyone with less need for people than you, but not needing isn’t the same as not touching”), the story develops around the last time the two boys meet, in a hospital room after Dustin’s latest semi-intentional accident, and concludes with a memorial after Dustin ends his life. Through Ben’s second-person narration, readers learn how Dustin never recovered from his mother’s death from cancer, and how he behaved with unalloyed hostility when his father, Lyle, met and married Gina, mother of Ben. Gina, ever-restless and irresponsible, eventually moves on, and Dustin is the one who follows her across the country, while Ben stays behind, more comfortable with Lyle’s roots and boundaries. Ben comes off as a sharp, strong-minded observer, aware of what makes the people around him tick, and with a gift for pinpointing the traits and attitudes on which relationships are founded or founder. Thoughtful readers will appreciate his insight, enjoy the ringside seat as restrained, rational Lyle meets Mallory, a flamboyant, take-charge TV personality, and come to understand both the dangers and the appeal of Dustin’s choices. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7868-0440-8
Page Count: 159
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
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