A well-described setting adds strength to this coming-of-age novel.
In this YA novel, a teenage girl deals with family, relationships, and limitations, growing up in the process.
For 16-year-old Francie Mills, tennis is the only thing that matters and the only thing she can control. She’d rather ignore her doctor’s warning to stop stressing torn cartilage in her knee than go without the freedom she feels on the court. She certainly has no power over her father Hank’s drinking and how it makes him obnoxious and embarrassing. Hank coordinates transportation for movie shoots, and on location with him in Austin, Texas, Francie meets 17-year-old Chet Jones, who plays with Blues Harp Jones, a band appearing in the film. Like her, Chet lives in Southern California, though he possesses an appealing Aussie accent. He’s also cute, charming, understanding about her father, and wants to keep in touch. But Francie struggles with self-consciousness, anger, and her father’s criticism: “he made her feel like a big, fat, worthless, useless, nothing loser.” Eddie, a would-be Martin Scorsese and brother of Francie’s friend Stella, also likes Francie, but he seems safe where Chet is exciting. As Francie struggles with her feelings, her tennis, and her father’s alcoholism, she learns some hard truths and comes to a new understanding about human connections. In her debut novel, Schubert captures the melodramatic roller-coaster emotions that come with being a teenager: “Chet had to write to her. Or she would disappear into a black, hopeless abyss.” The theme does get overworked, however, and readers may tire of Francie’s self-absorption; at times, she seems more embarrassed by her dad than worried about him. Also overworked to the point of tedium are sentence fragments and many sentences beginning with “And.” It’s meant to convey urgency and drama, but overuse robs the technique of effect. A screenwriter and film editor, Schubert uses her insider knowledge well to provide an intriguing background for Francie, friends, and family among the nonfamous entertainment world of struggling bands and costume assistants. Another plus—Chet and Eddie aren’t black hat/white hat romantic choices but complex individuals.
A well-described setting adds strength to this coming-of-age novel.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9985202-0-9
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Earnest Parc Press
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
