It’s the 1890s, and Casey and his family have just moved to the Australian outback from Montana. Casey’s had to leave his horse and his friends behind, and now he has to ride an old mule to school, where he is teased mercilessly. Casey and his parents—clones of Ma and Pa Ingalls—strive to make their way in their new country, and it’s the wild brumbies (Australian mustangs) that help him most. Casey’s kind of a finagler: He drives a bargain with a wealthy rancher, acquiring a beautiful mare when she loses a race, makes a bet with the school kids around baseball (a new sport to them) and ultimately—and hugely implausibly—“negotiates” with the wild stallion he’s named Moonrunner for the care of his mare and her colt. This portrait of Down Under pioneer life is built around a love of horses. There is almost enough hardship to give a sense of reality, but often Casey’s peculiar brand of salesmanship works a little too miraculously. Horse lovers will gulp this down, but for most the ride will be a walk instead of a gallop. (Historical fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-935279-03-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2009
Cynical inner-city seventh graders are challenged by an odd idea from a math teacher. Frustrated that his students do not seem the least bit interested in learning, Mr. Collins proposes a contest to build the world’s largest tetrahedron. Several students show up for the first meeting, a few because they want to do something new. One picks math club over failing the class and another does not have anywhere else to go. Armed with reams of paper and glue sticks, the students begin building the huge structure piece by piece. However, the rainbow hued composition is not the only thing they are gluing together. As the weeks pass, they realize that they are forming something much more than a claim to a world record. They are building their lives. Recipes for barbeque sauce, cake and cornbread separate chapters, told in several alternating voices. Smart and fast-paced, this story inspires as well as entertains. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-316-11524-X
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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