Autumn’s world is shaken when her father suggests they leave their cherished island refuge for the mainland. Harley and Autumn are fine in their low-key life removed from the hustle bustle of the big city where Mom spends her week at the Whale Museum. Killingsworth (Circle Within a Circle, 1994) lets the tide and barometer readings along with Autumn’s new journal become metaphors for the storm that shakes this 14-year-old at the intrusion of adult concerns into her child’s consciousness. Self-conscious prose and mental wanderings that mirror the action combine with an adult sensibility to create one of those stultifyingly precious non-stories. Valuable for the introduction of an adult lesbian relationship of a caring parent, unfortunately this presents no real sense of child. Wise, caring old friends like the art professor who lives in the lighthouse always with the exact right words and the child herself acts more like 40 than 14. Immediately on discovery of photos that make the facts about her mother clear, Autumn says, “I need to imagine them together, with friends and alone in the dark. I need to feel, somehow, their affection for each other and to know most of all that it does not include me.” The carefulness of the language and the artificiality of the sentiment are juxtaposed to create an appealing book for lovers of language who desire neither plot, character, nor reality. Some of the details, such as the making of paper and the improvised shower for the house without running water, help to carry readers past the musings. Any teen seeking refuge from life’s care who puts on a George Winston CD and curls up in a big chair with a lunch of French bread, cheese, and an apple will find a soul sister in Autumn. For the rest, the symbols are a little too obvious, the pace a little too slow and the sentiments a little too easy. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6153-3
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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