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FATHER FIGURE

Name: FATHER FIGURE
Author: Richard Peck
ISBN: 0812423224

by Richard Peck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1978

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Jim Atwater doesn't show much reaction to the suicide of his terminally ill mother, but he does, insidiously, grow more and more possessively protective toward his little brother when the two boys are left alone in the large, fading Brooklyn Heights home of their proper stiff-lipped grandmother. Then Grandmother sends them off for the summer to their father, whom Jim understandably resents for having split when Byron, now eight, was a baby; once in Florida, Jim resents Dad even more for any fatherly gesture he makes toward Byron. Ironically, it is bombing out with Dad's waitress girlfriend that allows Jim to open up—just a crack—toward his father. Thus the air is a little clearer, and so is Jim's head, when he returns to New York for his senior year—willing at last to let go of Byron, who has taken to the barefoot life and decided to stay on with Dad. Jim tells the story in a clipped first person that reflects his veneer of cool; it also reflects a certain slickness on Peck's part—but not enough to invalidate his generally well-drawn relationships.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1978

ISBN: 0812423224

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BEST MAN
by Richard Peck

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THE MOUSE WITH THE QUESTION MARK TAIL
by Richard Peck ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy

- BOOK REVIEW
SECRETS AT SEA
by Richard Peck illustrated by Kelly Murphy

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LOSING LOUISA

by Judith Caseley ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 24, 1999

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A tough, persuasive examination of the devastating effects of divorce on the members of what appeared to be a strong, solid family. When Michael Levine divorces Lacey and Rosie’s mother, each of those left behind retreats into her own protective shell. Ma takes up with a bodybuilder named Vinnie; Rosie’smart, pretty, and talented—finds solace in an increasingly physical relationship with her boyfriend, Joey; Lacey, feeling deserted and alone, moons over self-centered, wise-cracking David. Just after Lacey discovers her sister and Joey having intercourse in the Levine basement, Rosie learns that she is pregnant; the family has to support Rosie as she decides whether to have the baby or to have an abortion. Ultimately Rosie decides to have her baby and to give it up for adoption, with a hope that she will somehow remain part of its life. Caseley (Jorah’s Journal, 1998, etc.) leaves the meaning of the title ambiguous, and allows the story, at times, to be realistically depressing in its portrait of a family trapped in pain. Only when Michael Levine—offstage most of the book—reappears does the family reconfigure itself and find a way to move forward. In the end, readers know that the Levines will survive, and that Lacey, a particularly memorable character, will be there for them. (Fiction. 12-15)

Pub Date: March 24, 1999

ISBN: 0-374-34665-8

Page Count: 236

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
Z IS FOR ZEBRA
by Judith Caseley , illustrated by Judith Caseley

- BOOK REVIEW
DO YOU HEAR ME, MR. LINCOLN?
by Judith Caseley

- BOOK REVIEW
THE KISSING DIARY
by Judith Caseley

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TRIBUTE TO ANOTHER DEAD ROCK STAR

by Randy Powell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 20, 1999

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A teenager confronts a stomach-churning change in living arrangements in this thought-provoking tale from Powell (Dean Duffy, 1995, etc.). Three years after Grady’s rock star mother fatally overdoses, his grandmother and her new husband are about to trade in their house for an RV; he is facing the prospect of moving into the conservative Christian household of his beloved, mentally retarded half-brother Louie. A history of radical antagonism between Grady and Louie’s domineering stepmother Vickie makes this prospect unappetizing to him; deeply resentful of Vickie’s insistent efforts to distance Louie from anything that might remind him of his biological mother, Grady loses no opportunities to get under her skin. Ushering Grady past his reluctance, as well as ample self-doubt and residual grief, is his genuine affection—which is reciprocated—for Louis, a boisterous, not entirely naive character who leads a strong, nonstereotypical supporting cast. By the end, though the skies are far from clear, Vickie and Grady are headed toward a truce, each recognizing in the other a sincere will to give it a try. Although Powell occasionally indulges in overt psychologizing, he allows readers to see for themselves what drives a set of engaging, often surprising characters. (Fiction. 12-15)