The slow but near-total destruction of a bright and talented teenage girl is clinically anatomized in this British import. When Anna Goldsmith, bright and talented, moves from London to the north of England, she is at first embraced by Hayley, the most popular girl in school, and then pushed away in slow, subtle, and absolutely vicious increments. The story opens with Anna’s suicide attempt; to bring the reader in on what led to this, Mayfield (A Time to Be Born, not reviewed, etc.) tells Anna’s story by presenting three parallel narratives. Melanie, a schoolmate and friend, relates the course of Anna’s relationship with Hayley from her arrival some two years before the story opens, when they were 13. Melanie, essentially decent, provides an insider’s look at both Anna’s slow disintegration and the insidious attraction of Hayley’s favor—to which Melanie is in no way immune. Even as Melanie reveals the observer’s viewpoint, Anna’s mother Frances sits in the hospital with her comatose daughter, reflecting on how little she herself had observed of Anna’s decline into desperation. To try to understand, she reads Anna’s diary, the written entries counterpointed by Frances’s own memories of the events recorded. This slow backward and forward unfolding of Anna’s increasing depression is remarkably effective. Most successful is Melanie’s account; that she knowingly allows her genuine friendship with Anna to be undermined by Hayley for the sake of popularity will strike chords of recognition with teen readers, most of whom have a Hayley somewhere in their own lives. Justice for Hayley is less important than Melanie’s and Frances’s realizations of their own failures to nurture Anna; in the end, the story represents a bleakly compelling cautionary tale for teens and their adults. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7868-0870-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
It’s 1949, and 13-year-old Francine Green lives in “the land of ‘Sit down, Francine’ and ‘Be quiet, Francine’ ” at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles. When she meets Sophie Bowman and her father, she’s encouraged to think about issues in the news: the atomic bomb, peace, communism and blacklisting. This is not a story about the McCarthy era so much as one about how one girl—who has been trained to be quiet and obedient by her school, family, church and culture—learns to speak up for herself. Cushman offers a fine sense of the times with such cultural references as President Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, Montgomery Clift, Lucky Strike, “duck and cover” and the Iron Curtain. The dialogue is sharp, carrying a good part of this story of friends and foes, guilt and courage—a story that ought to send readers off to find out more about McCarthy, his witch-hunt and the First Amendment. Though not a happily-ever-after tale, it dramatizes how one person can stand up to unfairness, be it in front of Senate hearings or in the classroom. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-50455-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-73343-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
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