bookshelf

DARNELL ROCK REPORTING

Name: DARNELL ROCK REPORTING
Author: Walter Dean Myers
ISBN: 0-385-32096-5

by Walter Dean Myers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1994

bookshelf

Darnell isn't bad, but he meets his teachers' (and his own) expectations by earning poor grades and getting into trouble for his attitude. After he halfheartedly decides to work on the school paper, he's as surprised as anyone when his offhand idea—making a vacant lot into a garden where the homeless can raise their own vegetables, rather than paving it for parking—is picked up by the local newspaper and widely praised. Spurred by success and by curiosity about the contrasting lives of his dad, who has a good job, and Dad's Vietnam buddy Sweeby, now homeless, Darnell interviews Sweeby and gains insight into the difficulties many African-Americans experience in getting a decent job. Myers gets things right, especially the banter and concerns of kids like Darnell, who, even with real talents and a stable family, may "fall through the cracks" of a school without the resources or will to engage them; and the fate of Darnell's proposal, which is realistically presented as simplistic as well as imaginative. The book itself is not simplistic, as the deftly drawn characters have both strengths and weaknesses. Many readers—and not just those in multiracial, big-city areas like the one depicted here—will recognize themselves in Darnell and his friends. (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-385-32096-5

Page Count: 106

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
by Walter Dean Myers ; illustrated by Floyd Cooper

- BOOK REVIEW
JUBA!
by Walter Dean Myers

- BOOK REVIEW
MONSTER
by Walter Dean Myers ; adapted by Guy A. Sims ; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile

bookshelf

D, MY NAME IS DANITA

by Norma Fox Mazer ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1991

bookshelf

Like earlier protagonists of this alphabetical series, eighth-grader Danita learns something about a parent that forever alters her family's balance. First it's mysterious phone calls; then Danita keeps noticing the same red-sneakered 19-year-old, in too many situations to be coincidence. Even moderately astute readers will enjoy realizing long before Danita does that ``D.T.'' is her half-brother: born as the result of a high-school romance, Dad has never known of the boy's existence. The drama of a nice youth hoping to find a father but encountering a cold reception from an otherwise affectionate family man who simply freezes because he has no idea how to respond is sketched lightly here; the focus is on narrator Danita, who is the first approached by her brother, and who intervenes on his behalf—and, fleshing out the story, on her contrasting concerns with boys and a best friend. In a refreshing denouement, it's Mom (the last to know: Dad doesn't trust her reaction) who points out that D.T. should get a real welcome. No melodrama here; just another of Mazer's unique, believable families, coping despite their particular frailties. Again, light but nourishing, with plenty of reader appeal. (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: April 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-590-43655-4

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1991

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MISSING GIRL
by Norma Fox Mazer

- BOOK REVIEW
TEN WAYS TO MAKE MY SISTER DISAPPEAR
by Norma Fox Mazer

- BOOK REVIEW
HAS ANYONE SEEN MY EMILY GREENE?
by Norma Fox Mazer & illustrated by Christine Davenier

bookshelf

SECOND SIGHT

STORIES FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM

by Avi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

bookshelf

An uneven collection of stories about the new millennium from well-known YA authors. Avi’s “Oswin’s Millennium” is a powerful depiction of the life of an ill-treated slave boy who is convinced by one of the brothers that the world is about to end. Among the high points: Nancy Springer pens a surprisingly moving piece about a college disc jockey on New Year’s Eve, 1999, who starts hearing from listeners who are terrified. Natalie Babbitt’s “Tomorrow,” about a man who goes up in a balloon trying to see what the next day will be like, reads like a chapter out of Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine.” Richard Peck’s “Three Century Woman,” features one of his hilariously devilish old women; she’s not as senile as she pretends, and gets the better of some pushy reporters. At the other end of the collection, there is a bizarre muddle called “Clay” from Rita Williams-Garcia, about women who practice a form of magic that involves a clay pot containing their children’s umbilical cords; and an Austin story from Madeleine L‘Engle that recycles the pun that the millennium bug is an actual insect. There are also pieces by Janet Taylor Lisle and Michael Cadnum; the whole comprises a mixed bag, but the good outweighs the bad. (Short stories. 10-14)