Ten short stories set in Australia in the 1950s about the Melling sisters (All in the Blue Unclouded Weather, 1992; Dresses of Red and Gold, 1993) during a period of transition: They and their mother have moved, and they must adjust to different houses and schools, and to their father's absence. The structure of each story is pretty much the same: A small difficulty experienced by either Vivienne, Cathy, Heather, or Grace is overcome or resolved in a surprising way. The dramas revolve around minutely detailed disappointments and triumphs: the suffering associated with buying secondhand clothes instead of the yearned-for fancy school uniform, or the wish to take part in a play without looking as if it matters. Klein's command of the language is masterful and her prose exquisite; welded out of poetically intricate descriptions, it displays a sprawling vocabulary and an overflowing arsenal of metaphors and images that convey precise impressions and moods. At some points it becomes laboriously dense, as when the descriptions veer more and more towards clothes and hair, but when the plot is inspired, there are passages that are almost sublime. (Fiction. 11+)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-670-86266-5
Page Count: 177
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A moving account of the formation and valiant record of the first black regiment (a story also told in the film Glory), from the firing on Fort Sumter to an 1887 reunion. Cox, a prize-winning journalist, has woven an impressive amount of research into his straightforward narrative; battle details put readers on the scene with compelling immediacy, while they also learn how these men proved their competence and dignity against incredible odds—including not only their struggles with the Confederacy (which at first planned to treat black prisoners of war as mutinous slaves) but also the cruel effects of racism on their own side (e.g., the devastating hardship inflicted on soldiers' families by the government's failure to honor its promise to give them the same pay as whites). There are frequent, effective quotes from participants and from luminaries, including Charlotte Forten and Frederick Douglass, whose son was a member of the 54th. A distinguished presentation of the historical record. Bibliography of sources; b&w photos and index not seen. (Nonfiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-590-44170-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
A wry sequel to The Silent Treatment (1988): here, summer jobs put high-school seniors Ricky and Nate through a mystery from the past, as well as through some timeless rites of passage. Having to clean toilets and listen to gloomy, sex-obsessed Norman the Foreman seems like a fair exchange for a free stay at Quiver Lake resort, especially with all the college women around; Nate moves into hot (and eventually successful) pursuit of a Berkeley student, but Ricky is more inclined to watch from a distance. Meanwhile, what appear to be new but genuine artifacts of the long-integrated Miwok tribe begin to turn up, and Ricky almost loses his life in a primitive deer trap. Is there still a Miwok alive in the wild? Or, as someone suggests, is it the spirit of a young Miwok who never completed his manhood ritual and is unable to find the Aimah, an anthropomorphic rock formation? Carkeet's characters are portrayed sympathetically but broadly enough to keep the story light. The climax is big and dramatic: Ricky wakes one morning to find that the whole lake has suddenly drained away, exposing not only a field of slick mud but the Aimah, with piles of warm ashes at its crotch and armpits. There's no ghost to be seen, but readers can draw their own conclusions. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1991
ISBN: 0-06-022453-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
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