A tantalizing but disconnected sampler that hints at the range of contributions of 20th- century Hispanic authors and artists to this country's culture. On a foundation of reminiscences—Marco Rizo on his boyhood chum, Desi Arnaz, and Carnival in Santiago, Cuba; novelist Susan Lowell remembering her strong-minded grandmother; Oscar Hijuelos celebrating the ubiquitous street music in Spanish Harlem—cemented with brief introductions, Carlson (American Eyes, 1994, etc.) assembles anecdotes, photos, cartoons, poetry (some bilingual, with all Spanish translated), art, and essays from over two dozen contributors, on such diverse topics as music, racism, Operation Bootstrap's 1950s sterilization program in Puerto Rico, and the tin folk art called hojalateria. As the arrangement is broadly thematic and the editor stingy with dates, it's usually hard to tell an author's—or a piece's—age, and there is no sense of dialogue or historical development in the collection. Carlson declines to cite her sources or offer suggestions for further reading or viewing; her intent seems to be to pay tribute rather than to open a gateway for young readers. Parts of this are better than the disappointing whole. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Anthology. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8050-4120-6
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1996
A contrived romance/mystery with an anticlimactic ending and exaggerated, two-dimensional characters. Coming into a small Pacific coast town to help close her deceased grandmother’s house, Jane Douglas glimpses a gray-eyed boy, and can’t get him out of her mind. She throws sensibility to the winds and joins her brassy, malicious cousin Ricki in sneaking out at night to meet him at a shabby local amusement park, where she learns that his name is Carey, and that he’s just as fascinated by her. By day, Jane watches in puzzlement as her mother, Abby, is manipulated and insulted by Ricki’s shrill, selfish mother, Norma. Thesman pumps suspense into the story with hints of a skeleton in the family closet, odd behavior, threats open and veiled, enigmatic undertones, and ominous parallels between past and present events, but none of it comes to much. When Jane’s anger at Ricki and Norma outweighs her desire to see Carey, she hustles her mother away, headed for home. Romance-minded readers will sigh over Jane’s and Carey’s moonlight trysts, but the relentlessly hateful behavior of Norma and Ricki turns them into caricatures, and the Douglas’s escape leaves all the carefully produced tension unreleased. It’s a step back for Thesman (The Storyteller’s Daughter, 1997, etc.), who shows better skills and a surer hand with character in all her previous novels. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-87959-2
Page Count: 159
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1998
A well-crafted, straight-up adventure story from Hobbs (Ghost Canoe, 1997, etc.). Confined to a juvenile detention center after traveling through a series of foster and group homes, Rick escapes after trying to blow the whistle on corrupt guards. His flight ends at an isolated camp on the edge of a bewildering system of canyons known as the Maze District, in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, where self-named biologist Lon Peregrino is nurturing six young condors bred in captivity. More accustomed to birds than people, Peregrino doesn’t pry into Rick’s past, allowing him instead to help keep the condors under observation while they acclimate themselves to new surroundings; he also fills Rick in on their history and behavior and, as the two become friends, teaches him to hang glide. As Rick eagerly soaks it all up, enter two rough locals, Carlile and Gunderson, with chips on their shoulders and a mean pit bull who immediately attacks and kills a condor. Lon suspects them of collecting Anasazi artifacts for the black market until Rick trails them to a cave full of pipe bombs and assault weapons. Hobbs sets the stage for a dramatic hang-glide rescue and throws in a major storm, after which the bad guys are collared and Rick is set on a more promising road. Both the breathtaking setting and the huge, rare birds are strong presences in this page-turner; Hobbs appends a condor release program’s web address for interested readers. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-688-15092-6
Page Count: 201
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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