Molly, 16, is a true original: she sells collages fashioned from pieces of junk that she's juxtaposed to convey a liberal social message; she also goes regularly to a welfare hotel, where she gives the kids art materials and teaches their use with easy camaraderie. The money she makes at her stall in front of New York's Metropolitan Museum comes in handy, but—unlike her mother, a cocktail singer turned piano teacher—Molly's principles make her averse to the idea of a rich boyfriend. Ron, whom she believes to be the son of the housekeeper to the wealthy Spratts, is more her style; in an idyllic getting-acquainted period, the two share likes and opinions on art, politics, the environment, etc., at a rate that may daunt some readers but that isn't unrealistic from intelligent Molly and a Harvard junior. When Molly discovers that Ron is really a Spratt, she's predictably furious; sensibly, Anderson concludes with a partial reconciliation combined with enforced separation: Ron's off to study architecture at the Sorbonne. Along with some suspense about Ron's identity, the story is kept moving through a series of lively scenes, especially with the kids; a classy museum party is also wittily evoked. Some details, like the fearlessness of Molly's midnight search for an orphaned boy in Times Square, are less than plausible, and minor characters are lightly sketched; but Molly herself is vibrant and determined, her story a better-than-average anti-romance. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-15-213801-3
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1991
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
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