Richard has been raised by his aunt and her husband, a gentle Vermont storekeeper who values his musical and academic gifts. But when Aunt Ruth dies, Uncle Ambrose doesn't try to contest her brother Lyman's right to the 12-year-old, whom he claims as blood kin but covets as a laborer for his farm across the New York border. Lyman and his sons farm with the help of two slaves, ``Boy'' and his little daughter ``Gee Gee.'' Richard has known free blacks; slavery is illegal in Vermont in 1800—and not much countenanced in New York. But Lyman is a hard man, without imagination; he has sold Boy's wife Dina, uses him as a draft animal, and treats Richard with a similar lack of compassion. Still, despite Lyman's rigid proscriptions, the grueling labor, and a cousin who's ``a sneak with a nasty streak,'' the other cousin is kind, Richard's reading aloud is enjoyed by the household (including Gee Gee, whom he secretly teaches to read), and he's eventually given permission to attend school. In a taut conclusion, a sympathetic schoolmaster serves as deus ex machina: He locates Dina, now free in Canada, engineers the means for her family to join her, drives the escape wagon, and finds a place where Richard can earn his keep and continue his education. Possible, if neat; but also a satisfying outcome to a fast- moving, vividly authentic depiction of rural life and injustice in the country's early days. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-689-31883-9
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A young man who unwittingly helps a punk steal an elderly couple’s television in the first story sets the somewhat uneasy tone for this collection. While glimpses of Soto’s characteristic humor and charm appear in later stories, many of these tales focus on less-than-comfortable events and experiences. There’s a girl whose tattooed and pierced babysitter dyes her younger brother’s hair orange and green, a fact sure to enrage their mom when she eventually finds out; a child who is achingly aware of the enmity of anti-war protesters and simultaneously proud of her immigrant parents’ efforts to improve their lives; and a sad young boy whose painfully polite parents have frozen him out of the family without apparently meaning to do so. Each situation is distinct, clearly drawn and immediate. Soto presents his characters with sometimes insurmountable challenges, but he limns their lives with such vivid descriptions and insights that readers will be left wondering how things work out—and wishing for the best. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-15-206181-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2008
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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