Humorous and charming tales with old-fashioned appeal and delightful images.
A collection of new and previously published stories about a girl and her adventures with her real and toy animal friends.
Squirrel Hill is a farmhouse in the country near a small forest called Briar Woo. Madison, the young, white girl who lives there, loves climbing an apple tree and exploring with her friends. These include plush animals—such as a male elephant named Ellie, a monkey called Sergeant Monk-Monk, and Kitty, a cat—as well as living ones. The first three stories here appeared in Clark’s (Just an Ordinary Elephant and The Bald Cardinal, 2018, etc.) two previous books. In these tales, Madison sets out with several pals to cross the forest on an expedition to find North Africa; Ellie wants to be seen as special for wearing a straw hat, but it’s his kindness that makes his friends think he’s “very special indeed.” Kitty, who tends to be self-centered and conceited, finds herself being kind to an unfortunate bird. The new tales start with “Big Audie and The Runt,” in which Madison teaches a bullying raccoon a lesson about sharing. In “A Fly in Kitty’s Whiskers,” she gives Kitty her doll’s eyeglasses to wear “whenever she wanted to look beautiful, or when she wanted to check her whiskers for flies.” In the final story, Madison’s African American friend Kaila has been told there’s a pink dog on Squirrel Hill; they ask around and finally find the canine. Overall, there’s a pleasantly cozy feeling to these stories, and they’re sometimes reminiscent of the works of A.A. Milne, although Clark displays his own distinct style. Although several of the tales here have a clear moral, they’re never blatant, and the author softens the messages by employing several moments of gentle, humane humor. The affection that the various human, animal, and toy characters show for one another is also sweet and endearing throughout. Driver’s (Just an Ordinary Elephant and The Bald Cardinal, 2018, etc.) black-and-white, beautifully shaded pencil illustrations are a plus as well; they portray realistic but very expressive animals, and they capture the magic of Squirrel Hill as a setting.
Humorous and charming tales with old-fashioned appeal and delightful images.Pub Date: March 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-79885-589-8
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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