In tackling the well-worn theme of a girl who aspires to enter the in-crowd, Strasser (Give a Boy a Gun, 2000, etc.) complicates the usual plot by introducing a female, middle-school version of a con man. Lauren, who spends lunchtime with her overweight friend Tara, longingly watches the popular girls’ table as Celeste, a new girl, joins the inner circle. When Celeste befriends her, Lauren hopes it will pull her into the clique. But it’s soon obvious that Celeste is untrustworthy, stealing Lauren’s CDs, copying her homework, borrowing money she doesn’t repay, yet never inviting Lauren to the coveted lunch table. Why Lauren is so desperate to be popular, and why Celeste is so devious, are never clear. The hints about Celeste’s dishonesty intensify when Lauren and Celeste are elected co-treasurers of their class. Implausibly, they can withdraw hundreds of dollars from the class bank account with only their signatures and no adult approval. When Celeste insists they practice their signatures together, it’s obvious—although apparently not to Lauren—that Celeste is up to something. She fakes Lauren’s signature and steals the money, successfully setting Lauren up to take the blame and sacrifice her hard-earned savings to make up for some of the loss. Equally implausibly, parents are not called in and the principal decides to overlook the $200 still missing. The text addresses readers as “you,” but since readers are unlikely to be as gullible as Lauren, equating them with her is distracting. While readers may identify with the premise of wishing to be popular even at a high price, the awkward narrative voice and the holes in the plot keep this from being wholly persuasive. (Fiction 10-13)
Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2002
ISBN: 0-8234-1394-2
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2002
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
“Hear, and listen well, my friends, and I will tell you a tale that has been told for a thousand years and more.” It’s not exactly a rarely told tale, either, though this complete rendition is distinguished by both handsome packaging and a prose narrative that artfully mixes alliterative language reminiscent of the original, with currently topical references to, for instance, Grendel’s “endless terror raids,” and the “holocaust at Heorot.” Along with being printed on heavy stock and surrounded by braided borders, the text is paired to colorful scenes featuring a small human warrior squaring off with a succession of grimacing but not very frightening monsters in battles marked by but a few discreet splashes of blood. Morpurgo puts his finger on the story’s enduring appeal—“we still fear the evil that stalks out there in the darkness . . . ”—but offers a version unlikely to trouble the sleep of more sensitive readers or listeners. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7636-3206-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
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