With a pleasing simplicity of description, MacBride portrays life in the Ozarks 100 years ago during the Wilder family's first growing season. The second of The Rocky Ridge Years books details Rose's many adjustments: to different crops, a new school, and unpredictable weather, including a storm that downs the chicken coop. Rose's worries are universal (after a day with a large, wealthier family, she confronts Mama [Laura] about her only-child status), her triumphs familiar (she bests another classmate in a spelldown). Actually, little happens; though a classmate dies, Rose seems more grief-stricken about some baby birds that don't thrive in her care. Still, it's impossible not to be overcome by the sense of continuity with the Little House books, to rejoice with Rose over the glittering prizes of the general store, to relish her pleasure in a new dress, or to revel with her at dogwoods in bloom. Peaceful, wholesome fare. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: May 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-024245-0
Page Count: 286
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A touching novel, part historical fiction and part family story, from Karr (The Great Turkey Walk, 1998, etc.); the protagonist is based on her father, whose family fled Hungary before WWI. Istv†n Csere’s parents immigrate to South Jersey and begin the hard struggle to make a living running a chicken farm. Istv†n’s first job is to baby-sit his four younger brothers and sisters. When his father goes away to work, Istv†n gradually takes over. His mother insists that he continue with school, violin practice, and farm chores; in the meantime, many hardships befall them. The incubator, set too hot, kills the baby chicks after they’re hatched, the mortgage man has to be dealt even though there is no money, and Istv†n’s mother is so homesick that she can’t eat. When Apa (the father) returns, the family’s life improves, but only temporarily; Apa grows sick and dies. Istv†n, at age 11, attends his father’s funeral and becomes the man of the family. This is a moving tribute to a fragile American family; Karr writes with feeling of the trials and tribulations their new homeland holds out, and the bittersweet triumph of their survival. (glossary) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-34764-6
Page Count: 179
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999
This tour through time of varied eating tools is both fun and fascinating. Starting with the Stone Age, which took finger food to extremes until rudimentary knives were born, Lauber (Painters of the Caves, 1998, etc.) travels through the metallic ages (copper, bronze, iron), Middle Ages, Renaissance, and modern times, laying out the evolution of knife, fork, and spoon, the introduction of chopsticks, and the refinement of eating with the fingers. She explains—always with an infusion of humor—the origins and changes in etiquette, and the design tinkerings in flatware (including Louis XIV’s stipulation that knives be made with rounded ends to cut down on the number of stabbings at the table). Manders’s madcap artwork belies a rigorous and elegant technique of underpainting, dyes and washes; he gives a comic touch to such important historical moments as when it was proper to eat peas with the knife. (bibliography) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-11)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-80479-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
