To kids accustomed to gory horror fiction, Moore's (The Bread Sister of Sinking Creek, 1990, etc.) spooky tales from the Pennsylvania mountains—some based on traditional stories, others newly written—may seem tame indeed. More's the pity, for they're beautifully written and quietly chilling, full of shape-changing and weird, primitive archetypes. There's an Indian boy who rescues four girls enslaved by a swamp wizard, a hunter who spends the winter in a bear's cave and becomes a bear himself, and a fiddler whose girlfriend turns into a wolf every night. There are stories about love, too: A grieving mountain lion brings back to life her stuffed mate, who's been nailed to a shed roof; a crusty mountain man drowns trying to save his faithful, moon-crazed hound dog; a young man lost in the wilderness is rescued by an eight-foot-tall hairy woman who will later bear his child. Set in the old days of Indians and pioneers, these episodes portray a world in which you can walk in the woods for days and not meet another human (a thought frightening enough to many urbanites). The stories also tap into the timeless moral truths of an oral tradition—ideas about love, courage, honor, and integrity that are generally hard to teach without sounding hokey. A professional storyteller, Moore knows how to draw his readers gently into this mysterious world, giving them something to dream about without giving them nightmares. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-85642-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
This profoundly moving story is all the more impressive because of its basis in fact. Although the story is fictionalized, its most harrowing aspects are true: “Today, more than two hundred million children between the ages of five and seventeen are ‘economically active’ in the world.” Iqbal Masih, a real boy, was murdered at age 13. His killers have never been found, but it’s believed that a cartel of ruthless people overseeing the carpet industry, the “Carpet Mafia,” killed him. The carpet business in Pakistan is the backdrop for the story of a young Pakistani girl in indentured servitude to a factory owner, who also “owned” the bonds of 14 children, indentured by their own families for sorely needed money. Fatima’s first-person narrative grips from the beginning and inspires with every increment of pride and resistance the defiant Iqbal instills in his fellow workers. Although he was murdered for his efforts, Iqbal’s life was not in vain; the accounts here of children who were liberated through his and activist adults’ efforts will move readers for years to come. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85445-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
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