Lally uses a broad brush in this sexist allegory, contrasting—at length—the industrious female worker bees and the charming but dim-witted male drones, with their thoroughly ineffectual government and religion. As young Thora and her sharp-tongued friend Belle go about tending the hive and, later in the season, gathering nectar and pollen, the self-appointed Grand Drone creates a bureaucracy, dubbing dreamy Alfred Poet Laureate of the hive, charging disputatious Mo with seeing to it that the sun rises at dawn and sets at dusk, and leading ritual worship of the Great Drone in the Sky (familiarly known as the “GDS”). Expressing doubts about the GDS, scandalizing Alfred with the idea that the females’ Honey Dance might be art, suggesting to a confused Thora that all bees are free to make their own choices, Mo is a real troublemaker, though he loses some of his idealism after Belle is killed while driving off supposedly friendly wasps. In a poignant but ineffective ending, Mo and Alfred pass through disillusionment to wisdom as they’re driven out of the hive with the rest of the drones to die in the cold, and Thora, old and tattered, discovers in her last moments the peace of one whose work is done. Not Brewster’s quirky, accomplished drawings of insects with human heads, nor the author’s rich harvest of bee lore can rescue this labored satire. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-51038-X
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998
Marguerite Henry died barely two years ago, after living the life of which most writers dream: She wrote from the time she was young, her parents encouraged her, she published early and often, and her books were honored and loved in her lifetime. Her hobby, she said, was words, but it was also her life and livelihood. Her research skills were honed by working in her local library, doing book repair. Her husband Sidney supported and encouraged her work, and they traveled widely as she carefully researched the horses on Chincoteague and the burros in the Grand Canyon. She worked in great harmony with her usual illustrator, Wesley Dennis, and was writing up until she died. Collins is a bit overwrought in his prose, but Henry comes across as strong and engaging as she must have been in person. Researchers will be delighted to find her Newbery acceptance speech included in its entirety. (b&w photos, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 10, 1999
ISBN: 1-883846-39-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
From Savage (Under a Different Sky, 1997, etc.), a slow, clichÇd novel about a smart, sophisticated, ambitious teenager stuck in a small town while her future looms large; the rescue of hawks is the excuse for some overwrought allusions to flight and freedom. Taylor has just finished the ninth grade in Hunter’s Gap. She doesn’t fit in with the stereotypical small-minded, small-town types, and she misses her (also stereotypical) workaholic mother, who spends most of her time in the city or traveling to conferences. Taylor feels that her sensitive-artist (another stereotype) father is the only person who understands her until she connects with the class outcast, Rail, and Rhiannon, the “hawk lady” who runs the local raptor rescue center. Predictably, Taylor starts to see the real people behind the stereotypes, and trades in her future at the upscale Porter Phelps school for an internship at the local paper. Along the way, her father sleeps with Rhiannon, who sees in Taylor her daughter, who died; Taylor first worships Rhiannon (“I created a secret world in my heart—a high, windy hill where I stood side by side with the hawk lady, our long hair blowing until it mingled together”), then despises her; Taylor also has mixed feelings for Rail, the hick with the heart of gold. Hard-edged Rhiannon’s supposed charisma never comes through, and it’s easy to dislike Taylor, who, between bouts of self-pity, snaps at the very decent Rail in every chapter. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-91163-X
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
