by Tory Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 3, 2015
A poignant tale of friendship with realistic and admirable young characters facing some of life’s most difficult and complex...
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A young boy and his sick mother find family and refuge in Idaho.
“My mom’s sick. She needs help. I don’t know where she thinks she’s taking us, but we will probably die together there” is what young Jacob Lance wants to tell strangers at the Sacramento bus station. He has followed his silent mother there, who is later revealed to be suffering from severe clinical depression, and accompanies her as she wordlessly purchases tickets to take them both to Shoney, Idaho. Once they arrive in the small farming community, she wordlessly leads them to the house of Old John and Gert, their last living relatives and the first family Jacob has ever known. The gruff Uncle John spends more time with cows than people, but he quickly reveals a soft understanding and love for his nephew. Jacob helps John with the cows, becoming familiar for the first time with manure and early mornings, while his mother begins her slow recovery. Meanwhile, Jacob finds the small rural school quite different from the city life he knew. In particular, a spritely girl with yellow hair named Lace catches his attention and starts showing up at the dairy every morning, despite Uncle John’s assessment that the girl “runs wild around town like a stray cat.” As Lace and Jacob’s bond grows deeper, she begins to spark new life in the boy’s mother. This stirs both hope and jealousy in Jacob—just one of many complicated and deeply nuanced conflicts to arise as these two young people confront mental illness, death, and the failings of their caretakers. Like Sharon Creech’s classic YA novel Walk Two Moons, which handles similar issues against the stark backdrop of the American West, this book does not shy away from tough subject matter or wrap up the tale with a tidy, perfect conclusion. Anderson (Joey and the Magic Map, 2013) gives readers two fully realized central characters who deal with sad, painful events as best they can, sometimes even wrongly, creating a story about extraordinary childhood struggles that feels very powerful and very real.
A poignant tale of friendship with realistic and admirable young characters facing some of life’s most difficult and complex issues.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5170-1599-2
Page Count: 234
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Gary Paulsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001
Paulsen recalls personal experiences that he incorporated into Hatchet (1987) and its three sequels, from savage attacks by moose and mosquitoes to watching helplessly as a heart-attack victim dies. As usual, his real adventures are every bit as vivid and hair-raising as those in his fiction, and he relates them with relish—discoursing on “The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition,” for instance: “Something that you would never consider eating, something completely repulsive and ugly and disgusting, something so gross it would make you vomit just looking at it, becomes absolutely delicious if you’re starving.” Specific examples follow, to prove that he knows whereof he writes. The author adds incidents from his Iditarod races, describes how he made, then learned to hunt with, bow and arrow, then closes with methods of cooking outdoors sans pots or pans. It’s a patchwork, but an entertaining one, and as likely to win him new fans as to answer questions from his old ones. (Autobiography. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32650-5
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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by Cookie O'Gorman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 3, 2019
A familiar but heartfelt romance for easygoing readers.
In O’Gorman’s YA debut, two best friends try to fool people into thinking that they’re in love—and then discover a new facet of their relationship.
Sally Spitz is a frizzy-haired 17-year-old girl with a charming zeal for three things: Harry Potter (she’s a Gryffindor), Star Wars, and getting into Duke University. During her senior year of high school, she goes on a slew of miserable dates, set up by her mother and her own second-best–friend–turned-matchmaker, Lillian Hooker. Sally refuses to admit to anyone that she’s actually head over Converses in love with her longtime best friend, a boy named Baldwin Eugene Charles Kent, aka “Becks.” After a particularly awkward date, Sally devises a plan to end Lillian’s matchmaking attempts; specifically, she plans to hire someone to act as her fake boyfriend, or “F.B.F.” But before Sally can put her plan into action, a rumor circulates that Sally and Becks are already dating. Becks agrees to act as Sally’s F.B.F. in exchange for a box of Goobers and Sally’s doing his calculus homework for a month. Later, as they hold hands in the hall and “practice” make-out sessions in Becks’ bedroom, their friendship heads into unfamiliar territory. Over the course of this novel, O’Gorman presents an inviting and enjoyable account of lifelong friendship transforming into young love. Though the author’s reliance on familiar tropes may be comforting to a casual reader, it may frustrate those who may be looking for a more substantial and less predictable plot. A number of ancillary characters lack very much complexity, and the story, overall, would have benefited from an added twist or two. Even so, however, this remains a largely engaging and often endearing debut.
A familiar but heartfelt romance for easygoing readers.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-759-7
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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