Two adolescents, Daniel Aguilar, a high-school student and rock singer, and his girlfriend, Courtney Larkin, a young, passionate writer, recount through separate narration the painful recovery of Chilean Marcelo Aguilar, Daniel’s father, tortured under Pinochet’s dictatorship in the 1980s. Both of them will travel with Marcelo through the horrifying memories of his five years of imprisonment as he struggles, physically and mentally and with very limited success, to adjust to his new home, a small apartment in Madison, Wis., and to his now-unknown bilingual and bicultural family. His wife Vicky, a graduate student, sells empanadas to make extra money, while Tina, his brilliant 12-year-old daughter, has her own troubles. How, through Marcelo, Daniel discovers the Chilean that still lives inside him, and how Courtney, “la gringa,” teaches Marcelo that the land of gringos is not only the home of those who supported the military coup in his country in 1973 but also a land of human-rights lovers make for riveting reading. This poignant, often surprising and essential novel illuminates too-often ignored political aspects of many South Americans’ migration to the United States. (Historical fiction. YA)
Pub Date: May 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-931896-49-8
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Curbstone Press
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2009
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
According to Emert, the eight lawyers profiled in this book all shared a ``commitment to the causes of justice, fairness, and equality.'' Andrew Hamilton, John Adams, and Abraham Lincoln played prominent leadership roles in American history. Belva Lockwood, the first woman lawyer to appear before the US Supreme Court, assisted the Cherokee Indians in their monetary claim against the government. Clarence Darrow (the Scopes trial), Robert H. Jackson (the German war-crimes trial), and Joseph Welch (the McCarthy hearings) exemplified lawyers whose trial skills were at the highest levels. Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and ``the first attorney to file suit against a racist organization,'' has won substantial monetary judgments against the Ku Klux Klan and the White Aryan Resistance; his work continues today. Emert (All That Glitters, 1995, not reviewed, etc.) presents legal theories in clear and concise language; the tone is intentionally admirable in keeping with the book's goal of counteracting the negative image of lawyers. It meets and surpasses that goal, hands down. (b&w photos, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 14+)
Pub Date: Aug. 8, 1996
ISBN: 1-881508-31-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1996
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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In the same delicately precise style and brilliant colors of his Bizarre Birds and Beasts (1991), Marsh paints plants and animals cleverly posed to form hearts as integral parts of the decorative designs illustrating his ``light-hearted verse'': a ram's horns (``Warm-Hearted,'' concluding, ``...I must declare that I love ewe''); the space between two hippos' open jaws (``Big-Hearted''); an autumnal pear (pair) tree (``Change of Heart''); a barbed-wired frame, dripping blood and entwined with roses, with tiny cupids to sharpen points and also offer bandaids (``Empty-Hearted''). The accompanying verses are neatly scanned and spiced with ironies, puns, and—occasionally—odd facts: ``Here's a most romantic thing; / Dragonflies mate on the wing! / When secure in their embrace, / Procreation's taking place.'' This should be a hot item in bookstores for Valentine's Day; it also suggests some creative uses for art or poetry classes. (Poetry/Picture book. YA)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-8037-1449-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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