Weaver (Farm Team, 1995, etc.) continues his clear-eyed scrutiny of the adventures of 14-year-old Billy Baggs; Billy's father is out of jail and his mother, having tasted independence while her husband was away, holds on to the gains she has made in the household's balance of power. Just when it appears as though Billy's heartthrob, Suzy, is ready to leave her boyfriend, ``King'' Kenwood, Billy gets smashed in the teeth with a ball at a baseball game and is forced to wear shiny steel jackets. His mother's support and his own mulishness help Billy to rise above his mortification, and soon he and Suzy are sharing time alone in the barn. When King catches the pair, a fight ensues, and only the coach can figure out a way to end the feud between the boys: Each one must spend time in the other's home, suffering through the same chores (at Billy's) and enduring the same amount of bombast (at King's). The families may conform to the stratification of communities in northern Minnesota, but they have aspects—King, the rich town kid, has an alcoholic mother, while Billy's father, complete with cow dung on his boots, is the ultimate hayseed with some common sense on his side—that, though played for laughs, are still stereotypical. Eventually the boys realize how their fathers feed their hatred of each other, and confront the older men in a slick scene aimed squarely at reconciliation all around. Still, Weaver succeeds in creating an offbeat, exciting narrative that features a credible hero who is unpolished and thoroughly human. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: March 31, 1998
ISBN: 0-06-027121-3
Page Count: 230
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1997
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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