HOW TO BE A REAL PERSON (IN JUST ONE DAY)

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HOW TO BE A REAL PERSON (IN JUST ONE DAY)

Name: HOW TO BE A REAL PERSON (IN JUST ONE DAY)
Author: Sally Warner
ISBN: 0-375-80434-X

by Sally Warner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001

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Warner (Totally Confidential, p. 805, etc.) here serves up a touching novel about a gritty and determined young girl who tries to cope with her mother’s mental illness all alone. Because of her partly self-imposed isolation, Kara doesn’t feel real and suffers in silence by pretending all is well. She confides in neither her father, who has taken a job in another city; her friends; nor any of her teachers. What she does do, however, is make lists about “how to be a real person”; she also watches what others do in order to copy their “real” ways and to make believe her life is normal, though her mother gets progressively worse. Kara’s greatest salvation through her worst travails, whether at home or at school, is to retreat mentally to Lonely Island, based on Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins, a book she has read and treasured many times. Here Kara attempts to escape, however temporarily, from the crushing loneliness of her life and from the secret she dares not reveal. While the ending is a trifle pat, young readers will get caught up in Kara’s dilemma and admire her strength under adversity. Very likely this novel will strike a responsive chord among readers who believe they have to handle family problems by themselves. (Fiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-375-80434-X

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
ABSOLUTELY ALFIE AND THE PRINCESS WARS
by Sally Warner illustrated by Shearry Malone

- BOOK REVIEW
ABSOLUTELY ALFIE AND THE FURRY, PURRY SECRET
by Sally Warner ; illustrated by Shearry Malone

- BOOK REVIEW
ELLRAY JAKES WALKS THE PLANK
by Sally Warner & illustrated by Jamie Harper

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IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

A BARRIO STORY

by Luis J. Rodriguez ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1999

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Rodriguez’s bilingual story of just how easy it is to drift into gang life is snappily delivered in a tempo that makes it real. Monchi, ten, lives in an LA barrio with his mother, has friends and family nearby, and has a good head on his shoulders. When a gang member mentions he ought to be joining the local gang, Monchi relents, happy not to have been beaten to a pulp by the tough guy. His teacher and cousin, Dreamer, soon learn of Monchi’s gang activities; they try to give him some advice, and Dreamer gets shot in the course of her efforts. That wises Monchi up fast, as do the words of his uncle: “I know you want to be a man, but you have to decide what kind of man you want to be.” It helps, of course, that his uncle is willing to be his mentor (no father is in evidence here), and that his cousin survives, but that doesn’t diminish the effectiveness of this story. Rodr°guez offers an alternative vision that doesn’t preach, but observes. Galvez’s realistic artwork makes the story, and its point, plain and accessible. (Picture book. 8-10)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-89239-161-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Children's Book Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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GHOST CATS

by Susan Shreve ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

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Rich in cats and ill of temper, this sketchy tale from Shreve (Jonah, The Whale, 1998, etc.) is narrated by a sixth grader who is not taking a change in family life well. It’s an unusual sort of change: after more than a decade of moving from country to country, Peter’s family has settled at last in a Boston townhouse, and he doesn’t like the prospects of going to the same school for years, seeing his mother absorbed in law school studies, or watching his younger siblings exchange their old closeness for outside friendships. In flashbacks and snatches of dialogue, Peter angrily introduces each member of his household, including the six cats, as he recounts domestic tempests and incidents, family ties and rituals, plus an ambiguous subplot in which three cats die or disappear, then show up again in the final scene as ghosts. With parents who know when to pay attention and when to back off, Peter adjusts by school year’s end, but the story is rescued from outright conventionality only by Peter’s uncommon yen for the peripatetic life. Amy Goldman Koss’s Ashwater Experiment (p. 723 ) is a livelier take on a similar theme, and Shreve’s supernatural climax, despite the title, drops into the story like a stone. (Fiction. 10-12)