Gabriel, 14, and his dad Sumner fly to L.A. for the summer, leaving his newly divorced mom on a bicycle trip with her boyfriend; Sumner, second-grade teacher and author of a children's book about Timmy, an otter, has a film contract. Gabriel is mortified by the way Timmy, in puppet guise, invades every conversation, private or public; he's also apprehensive about adapting to California after staid Missouri. Indeed, the other denizens of their condo are a touch bizarre: Cassandra, a roller-blading psychic; gentle Mr. Palmer, an elderly nudist widower; Mona, who acts in commercials, and her camcorder- wielding daughter Tess, whose scintillating repartee is as relentless—and as genuinely comical—as Timmy's. What Gabriel learns, in the end, is that people are people, despite the ambience and facades. Meanwhile, there's a rather long getting- acquainted time, effectively buoyed by the offbeat, sympathetically drawn characters, remarkably imaginative imagery and witty dialogue, and the warming relationship between Tess and Gabriel (caught kissing in the garage, their innocence is real, their parents' conservative caveats refreshing). Like Zindel, Koertge revs up the fantastic high jinks toward the end; then, he closes with his own generous brand of informed reconciliation between parents and children. Another strong showing from a fine author; more conventional and realistic than Francesca Block's books about L.A., and it makes a rewarding comparison with them. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-316-50104-2
Page Count: 177
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1992
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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