by Mary Pope Osborne ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2000
Osborne (Favorite Medieval Tales, 1998, etc.) spins a wisp of history into this glittering, many-layered tale of a child struggling to reconcile within herself the clashing cultures in which she’s immersed. Having lost his Arapaho wife and all her family to cholera, wilderness scout Kit Carson leaves his daughter, Adaline, with a St. Louis cousin, promising to return after a mapping expedition. Dismayed to be saddled with a “half-breed” but determined to do his Christian duty, cousin Silas and his family force her to become a servant while praying that she will be able to overcome her “savage” nature. Refusing to admit that she can read, or even speak, grieving Adaline finds solace in her Arapaho memories and beliefs, even as she wrestles with the conflicting values of her beloved father’s religion and science. Finally, believing that Kit has lied to her, she disguises herself as a boy and sets out to track him down. Osborne adds threads of mystery to the journey: a canoe appears, then vanishes when no longer needed, Adaline is sometimes guided by voices and visions, and a seemingly inept stray dog repays her feeding and affection by saving her life. Smart, strong-willed, and with a distinct narrative voice, Adaline makes a memorable protagonist, her adventures will keep readers riveted, and, gratifyingly unlike so many fathers in contemporary fiction, Kit comes back for her. (bibliography) (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-05947-X
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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by David Shannon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999
The poster boy for relentless mischief-makers everywhere, first encountered in No, David! (1998), gives his weary mother a rest by going to school. Naturally, he’s tardy, and that’s but the first in a long string of offenses—“Sit down, David! Keep your hands to yourself! PAY ATTENTION!”—that culminates in an afterschool stint. Children will, of course, recognize every line of the text and every one of David’s moves, and although he doesn’t exhibit the larger- than-life quality that made him a tall-tale anti-hero in his first appearance, his round-headed, gap-toothed enthusiasm is still endearing. For all his disruptive behavior, he shows not a trace of malice, and it’ll be easy for readers to want to encourage his further exploits. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-48087-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
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by Kate DiCamillo ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001
Themes of freedom and responsibility twine between the lines of this short but heavy novel from the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (2000). Three months after his mother's death, Rob and his father are living in a small-town Florida motel, each nursing sharp, private pain. On the same day Rob has two astonishing encounters: first, he stumbles upon a caged tiger in the woods behind the motel; then he meets Sistine, a new classmate responding to her parents' breakup with ready fists and a big chip on her shoulder. About to burst with his secret, Rob confides in Sistine, who instantly declares that the tiger must be freed. As Rob quickly develops a yen for Sistine's company that gives her plenty of emotional leverage, and the keys to the cage almost literally drop into his hands, credible plotting plainly takes a back seat to character delineation here. And both struggle for visibility beneath a wagonload of symbol and metaphor: the real tiger (and the inevitable recitation of Blake's poem); the cage; Rob's dream of Sistine riding away on the beast's back; a mysterious skin condition on Rob's legs that develops after his mother's death; a series of wooden figurines that he whittles; a larger-than-life African-American housekeeper at the motel who dispenses wisdom with nearly every utterance; and the climax itself, which is signaled from the start. It's all so freighted with layers of significance that, like Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue (2000), Anne Mazer's Oxboy (1995), or, further back, Julia Cunningham's Dorp Dead (1965), it becomes more an exercise in analysis than a living, breathing story. Still, the tiger, "burning bright" with magnificent, feral presence, does make an arresting central image. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-0911-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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