A surprisingly awkward novel from Pinkney (Bill Pickett, 1996, etc.) about the comings and goings in an African-American family; it captures the pace of life in a small town in upstate New York at the cost of losing readers along the way. As she has for the last six summers, Nell, 12, enjoys staying with her great aunt, Ursa, and 14-year-old son Foley, especially this year, when Foley’s friend Slade Montgomery has blossomed into a handsome, smooth-talking charmer. The idyll goes sour when Slade produces a Raven .25 handgun, persuades Nell to hide it in her old dollhouse, and is shortly thereafter found dead. Just before the funeral, Foley takes the gun and is seen hopping a train, leaving town just as his father, Slade’s father, Nell’s father Wes, and Wes’s father had done. Nell narrates, and Foley obviously suffers a profound shock, but Ursa’s losses and internal conflicts occupy the story’s emotional center. Talky, slow, and off the mark, this tale requires readers to get past the plot contrivances and logical gaps—Ursa opens the dollhouse but doesn’t find the gun because the dog has removed it, and is unaware that Slade is the third teenager in the county shot in the past year—and to penetrate Ursa’s wooden, long-winded utterances for the genuine emotions beneath. Cumulatively, the adults have far more presence than the younger generation, several important events are reported rather than seen, and Nell is largely an observer. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-15-201461-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1998
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
A sequel to the most popular of Paulsen's three Newbery Honor books (Hatchet, 1987), based on an unlikely premise— government researchers want Brian to reenact his northwoods survival so that his strategies can be observed and taught to others. Derek, a young psychologist, and Brian are dropped off at another Canadian lake, near the first one, equipped only with knives and a radio that Derek has promised not to use except in a dire emergency. Everything goes all too smoothly until their camp is struck by lightning, zapping the radio and leaving Derek in a coma. Brian manages to float Derek 100 miles down a river to a trading post, thus saving his life. The lyrically described details of Brian's adventure— building a fire, making a raft—are of most interest here; for all its graphically evoked perils (rapids, the craft's unwieldiness, exhaustion), the journey's successful outcome seems less in doubt than did the outcome of the compelling autobiographical wilderness experiences described in Woodsong (1990). In Hatchet, Brian discovered his own strength, adding depth, complexity, and tension to the story; here, that strength is a given—as he himself points out. Perfunctory in design but vividly written, a book that will, as intended, please the readers who hoped that Paulsen, like Brian, would "do it again." (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-385-30388-2
Page Count: 133
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1991
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