Contemporary teens living on opposite sides of Canada develop a close relationship as they correspond by snail mail. When 17-year-old Sween in Saskatchewan responds to a newspaper ad, he receives a letter from 16-year-old Jess in New Brunswick who’s looking for her missing father. The two lonely teens are soon writing letters and gradually a friendship forms. Sween’s letters fill Jess “with a good kind of light,” while Sween feels Jess is his “old bud.” Lacking focus, Sween resents his parents, is kicked out of his school and his home and suffers a breakdown. An ace student trying hard to earn a university scholarship, Jess must cope with an autistic brother, a fragile mother and a manipulative, conning father who threatens to send her brother away to a special school. While their personal lives fall apart, the letters keep them going. As their relationship intensifies, Sween and Jess inevitably must meet, but with surprising consequences. In an age of instant messaging and e-mails, this tender epistolary novel tells a timeless story about the shaping of a friendship. (Fiction. 13-18)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-88899-750-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
A well-loved author brings together, on a Maine vacation, characters from two of her books. Peter's parents have assured him that though Sheila ("The Great") Tubman and her family will be nearby, they'll have their own house; but instead, they find a shared arrangement in which the two families become thoroughly intertwined—which suits everyone but the curmudgeonly Peter. Irrepressible little brother Fudge, now five, is planning to marry Sheila, who agrees to babysit with Peter's toddler sister; there's a romance between the grandparents in the two families; and the wholesome good fun, including a neighborhood baseball game featuring an aging celebrity player, seems more important than Sheila and Peter's halfhearted vendetta. The story's a bit tame (no controversies here), but often amusingly true to life and with enough comic episodes to satisfy fans.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-525-44672-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Big brother Duane is off in boot camp, and Justin is left trying to hold the parental units together. Fat, acne-ridden, and missing his best friend Ben, who’s in the throes of his first boy-girl relationship with Cass, Justin’s world is dreary. It gets worse when he realizes that all of his mother’s suspicions about his father are probably true, and that Dad may not return from his latest business trip. Surprisingly ultra-cool Jemmie, who is also missing her best friend, Cass, actually recognizes his existence and her grandmother invites Justin to use their piano in the afternoons when Jemmie’s at cross-country practice. The “big nothing” place, where Justin retreats in time of trouble, is a rhythmic world and soon begins to include melody and provide Justin with a place to express himself. Practice and discipline accompany this gradual exploration of his talent. The impending war in Iraq gives this story a definite place in time, and its distinct characters make it satisfying and surprisingly realistic. Misfit finds fit. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-56145-326-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2004
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