An Oakland teenager builds some self-respect by joining her housing project's new track team in this earnest, if lurid and unpolished, novel. Kisha, 13, is a skeptical participant at first; Darren, the new head of the community center, insists that team members stay away from drugs and sex, keep their grades up, and commit to six days of practice a week. She finds in this discipline an anchor that she needs, living among crackheads and teen mothers, with a best friend who is being sexually abused, and domestic violence in her own home (her unemployed, alcoholic father beats and then shoots Kisha's mother for getting a job). Levy (Fitting In, 1991, not reviewed, etc.) parades a succession of cautionary encounters, uplifting slogans, and sobering comparisons past readers, but sacrifices credulity with an unlikely plot; having done most of its training offstage and after only one other tournament, the team flies to Pennsylvania (paid for by Kisha's mother, who signs over a paycheck) where the girls ace a national meet, Kisha sets a new US record, and a passing airport porter writes Darren a large check. Such a huge dose of fantasy—even though the story is based on true events—makes it all the harder to swallow the author's messages, however well-intentioned. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-395-74520-9
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1996
Baz is an excellent thief. She has been since the beginning, when Demi found her as a tiny child and she came to live with him in Fay’s den of child crooks in an (perhaps frustratingly) unspecified urban slum. No one is as good at picking pockets as the innocent-looking team of Baz and Demi, and they’re content to be Fay’s favorite children. When Demi steals a glittering ring from an uptown lady, they fall into a lengthy chain of betrayal and corruption. Spies within their own gang are the least of their problems; the ring belonged to the chief of police’s wife, and both the police and the mob are after them. Trusting anyone is dangerous, but Baz doesn’t want to end up like Fay and Demi, who trust no one. Lavish details of the hellish environment, from mud flats that drown the unwary to the festering garbage mountain on which enslaved children pick trash for the mob, derail the adventure’s forward momentum, slowing it to a crawl. What ought to be a thrilling chase drags, despite the charming, streetwise heroine. (Fiction. 12-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-56330-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Chelsea Green
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2010
Basing her novel on a one-page story written by an 11-year-old child shortly before her death from leukemia, Bennett (Life in the Fat Lane, 1998, etc.) creates a tale of courage personified. A herd of miniature zebras appears before Becky Zaslow on the day she is diagnosed with childhood cancer—leukemia. During times of painful treatment, the zebras take Becky away to Africa and the Serengeti where they fight off tough predators, cross the treacherous crocodile-filled Mara River, and tell tales about Zink, a mythological polka-dotted zebra. Becky’s secret journal outlines the course of each treatment and is interspersed with the tale of these playful zebras; they help her to remain courageous despite her fears. The zebras, not medical professionals, prepare Becky for death when her bone marrow transplant fails and she succumbs to a respiratory infection. As one of the zebras, Ice Z, tells her, “True courage is admitting we’re afraid and fighting the predators anyway.” After her death, Becky, as Zink, joins the zebra herd. With three pages of acknowledgments and a lengthy afterword, readers may gain more than they need to know about the true aspects of this poignant story, but the embellishments don’t interfere with the raw emotions explored, or the power of Becky’s journey as she learns to run with the herd. (glossary) (Fiction 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-385-32669-6
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
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