by Yvette Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1991
A Brooklyn teen-ager becomes a Civil Rights activist after witnessing the savage effects of racism. Easter, 1963: at a family gathering in the rural South, 19- year-old Uncle Pete announces, to the consternation of all, that he's going to be a Freedom Rider. Sheryl Williams, down with her parents for the holiday, has little ambition beyond being a ``fly girl,'' but her consciousness is raised after being driven away from a ``whites only'' water fountain and watching whites being served first. On a later trip, she sees family members turned away when they try to register to vote and participates in a lunch counter sit-in. Then Uncle Pete's Freedom School is bombed and he dies of injuries. Back in New York, Sheryl organizes a successful benefit concert for the Freedom Riders but realizes that her commitment to the movement is just beginning. Moore subtly and effectively describes the changing mixture of fear and resolution with which Sheryl faces white hostility, as well as the firm church and family relationships that are her foundation. She also presents the methods and nonviolent philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement as clearly as the abuses it aimed to correct. An uncompromising first novel that's easily strong enough to carry its educational load. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-531-05812-3
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1991
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by John Boyne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2006
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
by Jenny Han ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2009
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
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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