A spirited African-American girl finds refuge from the chaos of her life in her summer job cleaning out the cluttered backyard of a singing teacher. Haley’s 13th birthday is marked by two events: finding a job and her mother’s nervous breakdown. Having left Haley and older brother Otis with a kitchen full of groceries, their mother commits herself and withdraws into her treatment almost completely. Haley manages to convince herself that she and Otis can get by; after all, both of them have summer jobs. But then Otis is arrested, his mysterious summer job being fencing stolen goods, and a reluctant Haley is caught up in the social-services net. Throughout, her yard job and the relationship she establishes with the singing teacher sustain her. Wyeth resists easy answers; even as neighbors and social workers come together in a potentially mawkish ending, the mother remains hospitalized. Haley is a delight: she’s tough, proud, and childishly enthusiastic about her new thesaurus (“GET LOST, FUNKY FOULNESS!” she shouts at a boy who bothers her in the park). Secondary characters are less well-developed—the singing teacher in particular is almost too good to be true—and plot developments are often predictable (the reader sees Otis’s trouble coming a mile off, for example). Haley’s straightforward, ingenuous narration carries the book, though, which distinguishes itself from others about urban families in distress by its convincing evocation of Haley’s bewilderment and anger at her mother’s depression, and her desperate desire to create some order in her life. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-679-88535-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. Putting first things first, they tidy up the house, with an unheralded sense of purpose motivating their actions: “Then we clean, clean, clean the windows,/wipe, wipe, wash them right./My dad shines in the windows’ light.” When their work is done, they head for the park for some batting practice, then to the movies where the boy gets to choose between films. After a snack, they work their way homeward, racing each other, doing a dance step or two, then “Dad takes my hand and slows down./I understand, and we slow down./It’s a long, long walk./We have a quiet talk and smile.” Smalls treats the material without pretense, leaving it guileless and thus accessible to readers. Hays’s artwork is wistful and idyllic, just as this day is for one small boy. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-79899-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Ramona returns (Ramona Forever, 1988, etc.), and she’s as feisty as ever, now nine-going-on-ten (or “zeroteen,” as she calls it). Her older sister Beezus is in high school, baby-sitting, getting her ears pierced, and going to her first dance, and now they have a younger baby sister, Roberta. Cleary picks up on all the details of fourth grade, from comparing hand calluses to the distribution of little plastic combs by the school photographer. This year Ramona is trying to improve her spelling, and Cleary is especially deft at limning the emotional nuances as Ramona fails and succeeds, goes from sad to happy, and from hurt to proud. The grand finale is Ramona’s birthday party in the park, complete with a cake frosted in whipped cream. Despite a brief mention of nose piercing, Cleary’s writing still reflects a secure middle-class family and untroubled school life, untouched by the classroom violence or the broken families of the 1990s. While her book doesn’t match what’s in the newspapers, it’s a timeless, serene alternative for children, especially those with less than happy realities. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 25, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16816-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
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