A humorous but flawed parody best suited for young adults and adults rather than the picture-book audience.
A young white woman named Cyndi Lou is presented with unusual (and sometimes-unwelcome) gifts for the 12 days of Christmas by her suitor, Billy Ray.
Cyndi Lou looks like a young Carrie Underwood, with a poufy ponytail, denim shorts, and cowgirl boots. She lives with her grandmother, Memaw, in a double-wide trailer in a country setting somewhere in the South. Billy Ray’s gifts are shown on left-hand pages, with chatty, amusing thank-you letters to Billy Ray from Cyndi Lou on the right-hand pages. While the letters are humorous, the illustrations are rather unsophisticated in composition and technique. Cyndi Lou likes her first few gifts, including “a possum in a sweet-gum tree,” two armadillos, and five razorback hogs. Things go downhill with subsequent gifts, including six gun-toting, smelly deer hunters (all men), eight Walmart shoppers (all women), and 10 NASCAR drivers (only one, a man, is pictured). By the conclusion, Cyndi Lou has married one of the NASCAR drivers, Memaw and friends are armed with 12 gifted muzzleloaders looking for Billy Ray, and the sheriff’s deputies (from problematically named Coon County) are looking for Memaw, “considered dangerous.” The main characters are all white; some of the hunters, shoppers, and other secondary characters are black or brown.
A humorous but flawed parody best suited for young adults and adults rather than the picture-book audience. (author’s note) (Picture book. 11-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4556-2298-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
When 14-year-old Ty witnesses a brutal murder involving neighborhood thugs, he and his mom are put into a witness-protection program in a small town far away from their East London home. Now named Joe, Ty enters a new school a year behind and finds himself haunted by his past and torn between two girls: Ellie, a physically disabled teen who trains able-bodied runners, and her sister, Ashley. Despite lots of Briticisms and the occasional longwinded spells of narration, David pens a mostly fast-moving page-turner. Her characterizations feel mostly fully fleshed, and their dialogue rings true. The staunchly un-Americanized text results in some odd, culturally specific references that could confuse some readers unfamiliar with the milieu: Kissing Ashley makes Ty's body sizzle like sausages in a pan, for instance. The contemplative pages within the blood-spattered cover may disappoint readers more drawn to gore than to the self-reflection the experience renders in Ty. However, if teens can move past these speed bumps, they’ll find a complex, engaging read about a boy starting a new life by escaping his past. (Thriller. 12 & up)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84580-131-9
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
In this character-driven intergenerational story, Royce Peterson and his single mother have recently moved from Nova Scotia to British Columbia to help care for Arthur, Royce’s 95-year-old grandfather and one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century. After the curmudgeon chases off every aide, the teen is enlisted to watch his grandfather. At first the homesick, friendless and mono-recovering teen and his homebound, rude and crude grandfather are at odds, but then Royce gains new appreciation for Arthur—he caroused with Gloria Vanderbilt and Picasso, traveled the world, loved and lost loves—and Arthur begins to appreciate life again. But just as the pair begins to respect each other, Arthur suffers a series of debilitating strokes and asks Royce to end his life. Inspired by her experience caring for her aged father, Harvey offers a realistic view of the aging process, the difficult decisions left to loved ones and the need for friends and family. Sophisticated readers and fans of Joan Bauer’s Rules of the Road (1998) or Louis Sachar's The Cardturner (2010) will enjoy the grandfather-grandson banter and tenderness. (Fiction. 13 & up)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55146-226-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
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