Part melodrama, part family relationships, as another juvenile author addresses the problems of the children of the flower children. Summer McIntyre, a responsible tenth-grader, hates living on food stamps in a rundown trailer with her irresponsible hippy mother Oriole. She writes frequent unmailed letters to her father, a medical student who drifted through her mother's life the summer before Summer was born, and she is especially concerned about her little half-sister Sparrow, who seems to share their mother's easygoing nature. Now Sparrow's little friend Marina Fisher has been sent away for her asthma, though Sparrow insists that she is still around; the sisters have been barred from the farm of their neighbors, the Fishers; and Oriole has taken up with Angelo, a sinister stranger who's turned up at the Fisher farm—and who shoots the McIntyre dog later on. Gradually Summer learns that the Fishers are growing pot on their farm and that Angelo, a big-time crook and dealer, is holding little Marina hostage there to keep the family in line. By the time Oriole is arrested with the others in a raid on the farm, Summer has already arranged for her and Sparrow to move to Connecticut with a wealthy couple Summer has been doing housework for. But Summer has also been working for another couple, her sympathetic English teacher and his wife, and they help her to see that sending Sparrow may be beneficial but Summer's own loyalties and welfare are at home. There's also a budding romance between Summer and 16-year-old Nicky Fisher, which is pleasant but no more charged with life than the stock characterization of Oriole and Angelo. Still the shady doings on the farm provide the necessary suspense and Summer's troubled but sturdy presence invites empathy.
Pub Date: March 10, 1983
ISBN: 0440201543
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1983
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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