Beebe Clarke (named for Boat_rice in Much Ado About Nothing) longs to play Juliet in the school play—until the director has a heart attack, and the substitute (a thoroughgoing philistine who teaches PE and computer science) decides the tragic romance won't do and transforms it into a comedy featuring cheerleaders and football. At the same time, Beebe's mom meets a nice hardware-store owner, Jim Driscoll, but then decides their interests are too different for a serious relationship. Meanwhile, the real story in this innovative novel is waiting to happen: Beebe and Jim's son, Mark, are well suited to be friends and more, but don't meet until the book's last sentence. Though they go to the same school and have friends in common, circumstances (and, eventually, Beebe's care for her mother's feelings) keep them in the separate circles described in alternating chapters. Sachs sports wittily with Shakespeare's imagery concerning "star-crossed lovers," making Mark an amateur astronomer, having Beebe point out that the Bard himself could look askance at astrology (see Julius Caesar: ". . .not in our stars, but in ourselves. . ."), and contrasting a variety of pairings. She also works some good, relevant Shakespearean quotes into this pleasantly light yet thoughtful story.
Pub Date: March 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-525-44683-4
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000
Categories: TEEN FICTION
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In honor of its 25th anniversary, a Disney Halloween horror/comedy film gets a sequel to go with its original novelization.
Three Salem witches hanged in 1693 for stealing a child’s life force are revived in 1993 when 16-year-old new kid Max completes a spell by lighting a magical candle (which has to be kindled by a virgin to work). Max and dazzling, popular classmate Allison have to keep said witches at bay until dawn to save all of the local children from a similar fate. Fast-forward to 2018: Poppy, daughter of Max and Allison, inadvertently works a spell that sends her parents and an aunt to hell in exchange for the gleeful witches. With help from her best friend, Travis, and classmate Isabella, on whom she has a major crush, Poppy has only hours to keep the weird sisters from working more evil. The witches, each daffier than the last, supply most of the comedy as well as plenty of menace but end up back in the infernal regions. There’s also a talking cat, a talking dog, a gaggle of costumed heroines, and an oblique reference to a certain beloved Halloween movie. Traditional Disney wholesomeness is spiced, not soured, by occasional innuendo and a big twist in the sequel. Poppy and her family are white, while Travis and Isabella are both African-American.
A bit of envelope-pushing freshens up the formula. (Fantasy. 10-15)Pub Date: July 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-368-02003-9
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Freeform/Disney
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Categories: TEEN FICTION | TEEN SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
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A prototypical survival story: after an airplane crash, a 13-year-old city boy spends two months alone in the Canadian wilderness. In transit between his divorcing parents, Brian is the plane's only passenger. After casually showing him how to steer, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. In a breathtaking sequence, Brian maneuvers the plane for hours while he tries to think what to do, at last crashing as gently and levelly as he can manage into a lake. The plane sinks; all he has left is a hatchet, attached to his belt. His injuries prove painful but not fundamental. In time, he builds a shelter, experiments with berries, finds turtle eggs, starts a fire, makes a bow and arrow to catch fish and birds, and makes peace with the larger wildlife. He also battles despair and emerges more patient, prepared to learn from his mistakes—when a rogue moose attacks him and a fierce storm reminds him of his mortality, he's prepared to make repairs with philosophical persistence. His mixed feelings surprise him when the plane finally surfaces so that he can retrieve the survival pack; and then he's rescued. Plausible, taut, this is a spellbinding account. Paulsen's staccato, repetitive style conveys Brian's stress; his combination of third-person narrative with Brian's interior monologue pulls the reader into the story. Brian's angst over a terrible secret—he's seen his mother with another man—is undeveloped and doesn't contribute much, except as one item from his previous life that he sees in better perspective, as a result of his experience. High interest, not hard to read. A winner.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1987
ISBN: 1416925082
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987
Categories: TEEN FICTION | TEEN FAMILY
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