by Wanda Boeke & translated by Wanda Boeke ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2008
Diaries are for girls. That’s why Maurits Hofmeijer, a 13-year-old Dutch boy, keeps a journal. After suffering “sagging brain” from all that is on his mind and possibly scurvy from the lack of nutritious food in his out-of-work uncle’s cramped apartment, Rits reveals why he is there: His overbearing mother has been institutionalized and his artist father has left to travel the globe with his new girlfriend. When he picks up his movie camera and a cookbook and makes friends with Rita, a girl with a loving but equally disjointed family, Rits begins to take control of his own needs and dreams. His slowly emerging independence also inspires his friends and family to act upon their own desires. Boeke’s smooth translation combines with Rits’s vulnerability and lovable voice to allow this fictional journal to transcend cultures. Despite the stress, the boy’s honest and often amusing depictions of his feelings and observations will leave readers smiling. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59078-545-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Front Street/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
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by Hanna Kraan & illustrated by Annemarie van Haeringen & translated by Wanda Boeke
by Karen Cushman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14, 2006
It’s 1949, and 13-year-old Francine Green lives in “the land of ‘Sit down, Francine’ and ‘Be quiet, Francine’ ” at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles. When she meets Sophie Bowman and her father, she’s encouraged to think about issues in the news: the atomic bomb, peace, communism and blacklisting. This is not a story about the McCarthy era so much as one about how one girl—who has been trained to be quiet and obedient by her school, family, church and culture—learns to speak up for herself. Cushman offers a fine sense of the times with such cultural references as President Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, Montgomery Clift, Lucky Strike, “duck and cover” and the Iron Curtain. The dialogue is sharp, carrying a good part of this story of friends and foes, guilt and courage—a story that ought to send readers off to find out more about McCarthy, his witch-hunt and the First Amendment. Though not a happily-ever-after tale, it dramatizes how one person can stand up to unfairness, be it in front of Senate hearings or in the classroom. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-50455-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
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by Marina Budhos ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2006
Illegal immigrant sisters learn a lot about themselves when their family faces deportation in this compelling contemporary drama. Immigrants from Bangladesh, Nadira, her older sister Aisha and their parents live in New York City with expired visas. Fourteen-year-old Nadira describes herself as “the slow-wit second-born” who follows Aisha, the family star who’s on track for class valedictorian and a top-rate college. Everything changes when post-9/11 government crack-downs on Muslim immigrants push the family to seek asylum in Canada where they are turned away at the border and their father is arrested by U.S. immigration. The sisters return to New York living in constant fear of detection and trying to pretend everything is normal. As months pass, Aisha falls apart while Nadira uses her head in “a right way” to save her father and her family. Nadira’s need for acceptance by her family neatly parallels the family’s desire for acceptance in their adopted country. A perceptive peek into the lives of foreigners on the fringe. (endnote) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-4169-0351-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Ginee Seo/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005
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