Basing her dramatic first-person, present-tense narrative on historical accounts of a German-American girl who was an Indian captive for the nine years of the French and Indian War, Keehn has written a first novel that rivals Hudson's Sweetgrass (1989) in its compelling evocation of Native Americans in transition. After killing and scalping Regina's father and brother, Tiger Claws relentlessly persecutes her on the march from eastern Pennsylvania to his Ohio village. Regina's plucky sister is threatened with being burned alive before being taken away by another Indian; Regina's new ``sister'' is a child she carried on the grueling journey. After such a beginning, making the reasons for the white man's fear of the Indians palpably clear (without sensationalizing), it's a tribute to Keehn's skill that she makes Regina's ultimate sympathy for her captors entirely believable. Although Tiger Claws remains brutal and his mother Woelfin stern and unforgiving, Regina makes close friends among the other Indians and comes to understand the magnitude of their tragic losses and the whites' betrayals. Rescue, when it comes, is almost as bitter as captivity; unlike others of the 200 freed at the war's end, Regina loses neither husband nor child, but she's forced to abandon the aging Woelfin, for whom she has finally learned affection as well as responsibility, to certain death. In a poignant conclusion, Regina is among those reunited with their families; a historical afterword adds tantalizingly little. A profoundly moving evocation of a terrible experience mitigated by faith, courage, and humanity, told with simplicity, compassion and admirable restraint. Bibliography. (Fiction. 11+)
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-399-21797-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1991
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION
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Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises.
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What would you do with one day left to live?
In an alternate present, a company named Death-Cast calls Deckers—people who will die within the coming day—to inform them of their impending deaths, though not how they will happen. The End Day call comes for two teenagers living in New York City: Puerto Rican Mateo and bisexual Cuban-American foster kid Rufus. Rufus needs company after a violent act puts cops on his tail and lands his friends in jail; Mateo wants someone to push him past his comfort zone after a lifetime of playing it safe. The two meet through Last Friend, an app that connects lonely Deckers (one of many ways in which Death-Cast influences social media). Mateo and Rufus set out to seize the day together in their final hours, during which their deepening friendship blossoms into something more. Present-tense chapters, short and time-stamped, primarily feature the protagonists’ distinctive first-person narrations. Fleeting third-person chapters give windows into the lives of other characters they encounter, underscoring how even a tiny action can change the course of someone else’s life. It’s another standout from Silvera (History Is All You Left Me, 2017, etc.), who here grapples gracefully with heavy questions about death and the meaning of a life well-lived.
Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises. (Speculative fiction. 13-adult).Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-245779-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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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 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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