Despite intimations of drunkenness, adultery and the coming war, Cece is as wholesome as a glass of milk, if as oblivious...
Cecelia Maloney (“Cece…rhymes with peace”), 14, lives in Newark, N.J., in 1938 above Loomis Hardware and below the Loomis family. Her adored Pop is a radio sound-effects man, and she wants nothing more than to be in radio, too.
Although she cons Pop into signing her working papers, she finds herself lying to her Ma and practicing deception at an ever-increasing level. She sneaks into New York City, talks her way into a Saturday copy girl’s job at Columbia, meets glamorous radio folk like Orson Welles (on whom she has a huge crush), and narrates it all in her starry-eyed, Depression-era teen voice. Cece is certain of her impending radio stardom and so completely misses her mother’s worry, her father’s erratic behavior and their poverty. First novelist Brendler has worked extremely hard at getting the setting, slang and tone of the late 1930s, but her characterizations are disappointingly one-note. Cece’s Ma is long-suffering, her best friend is a boy-chaser, an aspiring young reporter who befriends Cece is earnest; Cece's note is that she is completely self-involved and naïve as heck. The climax utilizes Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast to unravel all the secrets and lies.
Despite intimations of drunkenness, adultery and the coming war, Cece is as wholesome as a glass of milk, if as oblivious and self-centered as any teen then or now. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2861-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
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