A fun YA read about the pressures of adolescence, and about cultivating a healthy attitude toward change.
In McCowan’s debut novel, a young girl copes with her parents’ divorce and her academic responsibilities, while struggling to define her own sense of identity.
Yolanda Phillips is just starting sixth grade, but she’s already feeling a great deal of pressure. Her parents have recently divorced and are still ironing out some of the finer points of their co-parenting responsibilities. They’re also attempting to redefine themselves as individuals: Her mother takes dance classes, and her father becomes a volunteer coach at her school. Meanwhile, she finds that the onset of puberty is changing the dynamics of her life, as male-female relationships become increasingly complicated. Her friends and older sister seem to be just a beat ahead of her in their physical development and newly romantic views. At school, Yolanda likes her new teacher, Mr. Jones, despite his no-nonsense approach. But she becomes mired in procrastination when he assigns the class a report: “What I Want to Be When I Grow Up.” Her friends seem sure of their future plans and confidently complete the assignment, but Yolanda must do some frantic self-analysis to determine who she is and what she wants from life. In the novel’s poignant climax, she acknowledges her passage into young adulthood, while also refusing to grow up too quickly. McCowan tells the story from Yolanda’s chatty, first-person point of view, and the book’s primary strength is the authenticity of that voice, as she energetically rambles through adolescent triumphs and travails. Yolanda is a charming creation: wary yet game, critical and questioning, without ever resorting to snarkiness. Her observations of her parents’ attempts at amicability (“They were making small talk, but I could tell it was different than before”) and of their post-divorce loneliness are touching. But although the author does a wonderful job of capturing the girl’s vivacious personality, younger readers may have difficulty envisioning some scenes due to the story’s overall lack of physical description.
A fun YA read about the pressures of adolescence, and about cultivating a healthy attitude toward change.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1478709619
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Outskirts Press Inc.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2026 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.
