For a rollicking tale of a thief who gets his just deserts, try Cynthia DeFelice’s Old Granny and the Bean Thief, or, for a...
Lee’s latest is disappointing all around.
Clarence is a little boy who lives in a town in the mountains and keeps to himself. His one avocation seems to be stealing cakes–the beautiful, decorated ones that his neighbors have made. The masked boy sneaks through kitchen windows to lift the covers off the cake stands and spirit away the creations he finds. But one day, instead of a confection, he finds an invitation to a party. The one caveat is that he must supply the cake. Clarence knows he cannot take a stolen cake, but he does not know how to cook. After much fretting, he discovers a cookbook that will fill in the gaps in his culinary know-how, and his cat helps him bake a beautiful cake. Unmasked, he attends the party amid much cheering, and now no longer needs to steal cakes, since “he had learned how to bake a cake for everyone to enjoy.” Never is it made apparent why Clarence steals cakes (he doesn’t admire or eat them), or why he shuns socializing with his neighbors. Without these background details, the ending falls flat, as the reader does not empathize with Clarence. Also, parents ought to be concerned by Lee’s failure to make clear to readers that stealing is wrong and carries penalties. Clarence never faces negative consequences for his stealing and is instead rewarded by a party and the offer of friendship with his neighbors. Lee’s bright, party-colored oil paintings are filled with bold, clear-lined basic shapes but are rather lackluster in substance. There’s too little there to keep the interest of readers who already find the story deficient, ultimately leaving more questions than it answers.
For a rollicking tale of a thief who gets his just deserts, try Cynthia DeFelice’s Old Granny and the Bean Thief, or, for a classic, no one does it better than Beatrix Potter and The Tale of Peter Rabbit.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-41968-392-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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