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KAT'S SURRENDER

Name: KAT'S SURRENDER
Author: Theresa Martin Golding
ISBN: 1-56397-755-9

by Theresa Martin Golding ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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A novel that skillfully pits a teenager against nearly insurmountable sorrows following the death of her mother. Kat, 13, whose mother died of cancer, has withdrawn from the world. As she tries to ignore her old friends, she makes a new one in the General, an elderly man who feeds pigeons and lives in a fantasy. Kat finds she can’t avoid her old friends entirely; she still sees her best friend, Maggie, who believes that a next-door neighbor, Mrs. Twitchell, is a malevolent witch, a notion Kat accepts. Calamity strikes again when Maggie is injured in a hit-and-run accident; the General is the guilty driver. Kat loses her only remaining friend, Paul, when she tries to defend the General. Only a strict teacher, Sister Mildred, offers any sympathy, but it’s not until Kat falls off a ledge and into Mrs. Twitchell’s apartment does she learn that everyone has some tragedy, and that life can be good when it is faced with courage. Golding displays solid knowledge of adolescent girls, and her story has enough excitement and mystery to interest many of them. (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 1-56397-755-9

Page Count: 179

Publisher: Boyds Mills

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
NINER
by Theresa Martin Golding

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TRUTH ABOUT TWELVE
by Theresa Martin Golding

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SMILING

by Gwenyth Swain ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 13, 1999

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The latest addition to the Small World series, which shows children around the world engaged in similar activities, focuses on the very human act of smiling. Using full-color photographs, Swain supplies a rhythmic cascade of statements and queries: “Do you smile when you put on a hat? Do you smile for the camera, just like that?” Every page contains a photograph with one to two lines that are simple enough for beginning readers to attempt. The scope of photographs allows children to stretch their imaginations: all convey the information that people are more alike than different. An index provides further information on the locations and settings of the photographs. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: April 13, 1999

ISBN: 1-57505-256-3

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Carolrhoda

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
HOPE AND TEARS
by Gwenyth Swain

- BOOK REVIEW
MEET THE WOOLLY MAMMOTH
by Sophie Philippo & translated by Gwenyth Swain & adapted by Gwenyth Swain & illustrated by Charles Dutertre

- BOOK REVIEW
CHIG AND THE SECOND SPREAD
by Gwenyth Swain

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THE COWBOY ABC

by Chris L. Demarest ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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Demarest (Plane, 1995, etc.) abandons his familiar minimalist cartoons for a more elaborate style in this tribute to the cowboy mythos. Captioned by a rhymed alphabet—“A is for Appaloosa, a trusty steed. B is for Buckaroo, who rides at top speed”—the scenes depict a crew of cowhands (of both sexes) working horses, cattle, and sheep through a series of unspoiled, wide-open landscapes. Rendering chaps and stetsons, nighthawks and prairie dogs in loving detail, Demarest captures that rugged, outdoorsy life at its most romanticized, and will leave readers itching to saddle up. (Picture book. 6-7)