Felicia ("Felix"), 12, recounts her adventures with stepsister Amy, also 12, and Amy's 10-year-old brother, Phillip, when the three are dragged along on their parents' honeymoon. With her attention focused on her bitter feud with Amy, Felix carelessly gives a friendly stranger (Grace), met on the street in Toledo, an exaggerated impression of the family's wealth. Later, her parents accept Grace's offer to take the three kids to to see some windmills—a venture that promptly becomes a kidnapping, planned by Grace as a transfer of what she sees as excess wealth to more needy children. But the plan is perverted by the greed of her unscrupulous accomplices—and, horrified, Grace finally helps her victims escape; in turn, they conceal her part in the venture. The beginning here is comfortably predictable, the climax appropriately suspenseful (as Amy and Felix flee, hide, bicker, and warily begin to accept each other), and the conclusion has some satisfying twists that grow logically out of the lightly sketched but plausible characterizations. While the parents' trust in Grace is improbable, it's an acceptable premise for the genre. Good recreational fare.
Pub Date: March 18, 1991
ISBN: 0-395-55696-1
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000
There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. Putting first things first, they tidy up the house, with an unheralded sense of purpose motivating their actions: “Then we clean, clean, clean the windows,/wipe, wipe, wash them right./My dad shines in the windows’ light.” When their work is done, they head for the park for some batting practice, then to the movies where the boy gets to choose between films. After a snack, they work their way homeward, racing each other, doing a dance step or two, then “Dad takes my hand and slows down./I understand, and we slow down./It’s a long, long walk./We have a quiet talk and smile.” Smalls treats the material without pretense, leaving it guileless and thus accessible to readers. Hays’s artwork is wistful and idyllic, just as this day is for one small boy. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-79899-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Ramona returns (Ramona Forever, 1988, etc.), and she’s as feisty as ever, now nine-going-on-ten (or “zeroteen,” as she calls it). Her older sister Beezus is in high school, baby-sitting, getting her ears pierced, and going to her first dance, and now they have a younger baby sister, Roberta. Cleary picks up on all the details of fourth grade, from comparing hand calluses to the distribution of little plastic combs by the school photographer. This year Ramona is trying to improve her spelling, and Cleary is especially deft at limning the emotional nuances as Ramona fails and succeeds, goes from sad to happy, and from hurt to proud. The grand finale is Ramona’s birthday party in the park, complete with a cake frosted in whipped cream. Despite a brief mention of nose piercing, Cleary’s writing still reflects a secure middle-class family and untroubled school life, untouched by the classroom violence or the broken families of the 1990s. While her book doesn’t match what’s in the newspapers, it’s a timeless, serene alternative for children, especially those with less than happy realities. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 25, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16816-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
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