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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
