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I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE

Name: I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE
Author: Stephanie Kuehnert
ISBN: 978-1-4165-6269-6

by Stephanie Kuehnert ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2008

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Proud, headstrong and slutty, aspiring punk Emily Black longs to start her own band and find her mother, who disappeared when she was only four. The saga of her rise, fall and re-rise to punk-rock stardom could very well deserve its own series. Here, however, it’s crammed into a fat but tight volume where the pages are packed so densely with melodrama readers will need to flip back and forth to keep track of the plot. The first half feels much more distilled than the latter: Kuehnert’s language is slick. The punk references bite with genuine angst and hunger, and Emily’s tough, sardonic attitude, as revealed through chunky, poetic language, is feverishly tempting. After page 200, however, the timing between plot points quickly becomes compressed: Hearts are broken and then put back together again in one page. Lengthy scenes of Emily’s mom hooking, drinking, shooting up and feeling empty make the obvious point that their lives are parallel, but the device neglects the principle that in the world of YA fiction, less is usually more. (Fiction. YA)

Pub Date: July 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1-4165-6269-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: MTV Books/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
PIECES OF A GIRL
by Stephanie Kuehnert ; illustrated by Suzy Exposito

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TAKING CHARGE

by Sonia Levitin ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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Amanda (Boom Town, 1998, etc.) returns for her third adventure, this time standing in for her mother who has returned to the East to care for her ailing mother. Amanda figures she’s more than up to the challenge of housekeeping for her father, three older brothers, and Baby Nathan. Determined to do it all herself, Amanda spurns her father’s suggestion to seek help—even though dinners are getting progressively less appealing. Baby Nathan proves to be her true undoing, and finally Amanda solicits help, realizing that trouble shared is trouble halved. By the time her mother returns (an easy trip, apparently, to the other coast and back), Amanda is ready for an extended break, and readers will be, too. This story is a flat, humorless extension of the last two books; Baby Nathan’s shenanigans are predictable, forgettable, and woefully tame. Smith’s watercolors inject some spunk, but it may be time for Amanda’s adventures to come to a rest. (Picture book. 5-9)