It always seemed to be summer in Davy Bowman’s Illinois town; his street was his world. In epic games of hide-and-seek, Davy would ride toward home base on brother Bill’s shoulders or in the crook of his father’s good arm. And every Halloween, Earl Bowman, in Grandma Dowdel–like fashion, exacted revenge on neighborhood bullies. Early episodes give way to rich stories—poignant and humorous—about the weight of war as it wrapped around the shoulders of the Bowmans. It was “the duration,” not really real life, just waiting for Bill to return from his B-17 missions over Germany. In the meantime, Davy and his friend Scooter gather scrap metal, newspapers and milkweed for the war effort, the Chicago mob attacks Mr. Bowman and ancient Eulalia Titus teaches Davy’s class with a firm hand (and strategically placed rattraps). Peck’s skill at characterization is unsurpassed; Earl Bowman is as memorable as any previous character. Scenes are so well crafted they beg to be read aloud. An ode to a father, a big brother and an era captured by a writer at his peak. (Fiction. 10+)
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8037-3081-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A luscious, shivery delight.
After losing almost everything in the Great Depression, Ellie’s family moves to the Maine woods on Echo Mountain to start a farm—then tragedy strikes.
Not long after getting them established in their new life, Ellie’s father is struck on the head by a falling tree and lapses into a monthslong coma, his recovery unlikely. Never feeling threatened by the wilderness the way her mother and older sister, Esther, do, Ellie takes over many of her beloved father’s chores, finding comfort and confidence in the forest. She’s fully mindful of her place in the natural world and her impact on the plants and animals she shares it with. After she becomes determined to use the resources of the woods, however novel and imaginative the application, to save her father, conflict with her mother and Esther increases sharply. Led by a dog, Ellie discovers elderly Cate—called “hag” and shunned as a witch—badly injured, living alone in a cabin on the mountaintop. Cate fully understands the 12-year-old’s slightly supernatural sense. Cate’s grandson, Larkin, Ellie’s age, flits in and out of the tale before finally claiming his place in this magnificently related story of the wide arc of responsibility, acceptance, and, ultimately, connectedness. Carefully paced and told in lyrical prose, characters—all default White—are given plenty of time and room to develop against a well-realized, timeless setting.
A luscious, shivery delight. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-55556-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
The bird’s-eye view into this pivotal moment provides a powerful story, one that adults will applaud—but between the...
The ugly brutality of the Jim Crow South is recounted in dulcet, poetic tones, creating a harsh and fascinating blend.
Fact and fiction pair in the story of Rose Lee Carter, 13, as she copes with life in a racially divided world. It splits wide open when a 14-year-old boy from Chicago named Emmett Till goes missing. Jackson superbly blends the history into her narrative. The suffocating heat, oppression, and despair African-Americans experienced in 1955 Mississippi resonate. And the author effectively creates a protagonist with plenty of suffering all her own. Practically abandoned by her mother, Rose Lee is reviled in her own home for the darkness of her brown skin. The author ably captures the fear and dread of each day and excels when she shows the peril of blacks trying to assert their right to vote in the South, likely a foreign concept to today’s kids. Where the book fails, however, is in its overuse of descriptors and dialect and the near-sociopathic zeal of Rose Lee's grandmother Ma Pearl and her lighter-skinned cousin Queen. Ma Pearl is an emotionally remote tyrant who seems to derive glee from crushing Rose Lee's spirits. And Queen is so glib and self-centered she's almost a cartoon.
The bird’s-eye view into this pivotal moment provides a powerful story, one that adults will applaud—but between the avalanche of old-South homilies and Rose Lee’s relentlessly hopeless struggle, it may be a hard sell for younger readers. (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-78510-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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