An appealing young heroine discovers her own strengths in this seamless mix of fantasy, suspense, and real-life dilemmas.
A sixth grade girl’s strange works of art, her interest in mysteries, and a dangerous bully embroil her in turmoil and adventure.
Part mystery, part fantasy, and part journey of self-discovery, this middle-grade novel focuses on a 12-year-old girl with an unusual gift. Gracie Cooper, who was adopted as a baby, stopped making realistic art in the first grade after her classmates’ paintings were found torn to shreds. Only Gracie’s was spared, but at home, she wondered why the ferocious wild animals she had painted now appeared to be sound asleep. Her alarmed mother cryptically made Gracie promise to draw and paint “nothing that exists in the world” from then on. Except for one secret painting, Gracie sticks to abstract art even after her mother dies. But a new art teacher’s insistence on realism gets Gracie in trouble when fresh fruit in her painting turns brown and she is accused of deliberately altering her work. The news that her best friend and fellow mystery buff is moving away adds to Gracie’s woes, as does the class bully. He taunts one girl for speaking Spanish instead of English (the characters are not otherwise identified by race or ethnicity) and targets Gracie with verbal and physical abuse. Then Gracie finds one of her creations very much alive in her mother’s sketchbook. As Gracie and her creation interact, the novel deftly draws readers into a fantastical journey through the world of the heroine’s vivid imagination, culminating in her determination to overcome fear and self-doubt in a life that will never be ordinary again. Throughout this well-crafted tale, Ralph (The Peculiar Circumstances Surrounding the Disappearance of the Extraordinary Jimmy Pickles, 2015, etc.), a former teacher and the author of fiction for children and young adults, offers imaginative twists and emotional resonance. He shapes Gracie’s still-grieving father and other adults and her relationship with her peers with informed empathy. And the author’s revelation of the origin of Gracie and her talent is a genuinely moving surprise.
An appealing young heroine discovers her own strengths in this seamless mix of fantasy, suspense, and real-life dilemmas.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-900056-6
Page Count: 292
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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