by Tish Cohen ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2007
Children with their own insightful rules on life have become a popular vehicle for poignant themes. Zoë Lama (think Dalai Lama) is a pint-size seventh-grader with unwritten rules of advice for friends and classmates. After defusing a bully situation on the playground, Zoë Monday Costello gains such respect and clout that her small stature does not prevent her from having an overly inflated view of her opinions. Bestowing her guidance for things like picture-day clothing and boyfriend behavior can be a bit overbearing at times. Written in a first-person know-it-all voice, a larger bold type for pointed emphasis, a smattering of IM language and a sprinkling of pen-and-ink drawings, this deals with typical fare for the fatherless Zoë. A full plate of “responsibilities,” from chairing the school’s dance committee, to mentoring new student Maisie, to keeping Grandma out of assisted living while scheming to have Mom marry the math teacher, all play against the everyday middle-school drama. When plans and guidance backfire, Zoë acquiesces to unwritten rule #10. Just when everyone is weary of Zoë’s self-proclaimed knowledge, Cohen gets to the point and reverses her protagonist’s attitude, concluding with the message, “Sometimes the best way to be a friend is to just let people be themselves.” Sitcom style for familiar themes. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: July 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-525-47810-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2007
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by Christopher Paul Curtis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1995
Curtis debuts with a ten-year-old's lively account of his teenaged brother's ups and downs. Ken tries to make brother Byron out to be a real juvenile delinquent, but he comes across as more of a comic figure: getting stuck to the car when he kisses his image in a frozen side mirror, terrorized by his mother when she catches him playing with matches in the bathroom, earning a shaved head by coming home with a conk. In between, he defends Ken from a bully and buries a bird he kills by accident. Nonetheless, his parents decide that only a long stay with tough Grandma Sands will turn him around, so they all motor from Michigan to Alabama, arriving in time to witness the infamous September bombing of a Sunday school. Ken is funny and intelligent, but he gives readers a clearer sense of Byron's character than his own and seems strangely unaffected by his isolation and harassment (for his odd look—he has a lazy eye—and high reading level) at school. Curtis tries to shoehorn in more characters and subplots than the story will comfortably bear—as do many first novelists—but he creates a well-knit family and a narrator with a distinct, believable voice. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-32175-9
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
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by Shana Burg ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 12, 2012
Ultimately, Burg’s lyrical prose will make readers think about the common ground among peoples, despite inevitable...
Melding the colors of heartache and loss with painterly strokes, Burg creates a vivid work of art about a girl grieving for her recently deceased mother against a Third World backdrop.
Clare is not speaking to her father. She has vowed never to speak to him again. Which could be tough, since the pair just touched down in Malawi. There, Clare finds herself struck by the contrast between American wealth and the relatively bare-bones existence of her new friends. Drowning in mourning and enraged at the emptiness of grief, Clare is a hurricane of early-adolescent emotions. Her anger toward her father crackles like lightning in the treetops. She finds purpose, though, in teaching English to the younger children, which leads her out of grief. Burg’s imagery shimmers. “The girl talks to her mother in a language that sounds like fireworks, full of bursts and pops. She holds her hand over her mouth giggling.... She probably has so many minutes with her mother, she can’t even count them.” Her realization of the setting and appreciation for the Malawian people are so successful that they compensate for Clare's wallowing, which sometimes feels contrived.
Ultimately, Burg’s lyrical prose will make readers think about the common ground among peoples, despite inevitable disparities. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: June 12, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-385-73471-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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