In her first YA novel, Lewis delivers a deceptively simple, in-depth psychological portrait of an angry girl who finds courage in her dreams of Abraham Lincoln. Meghan, 16, has lost nearly everything she loves. Her mother was killed in a car accident; her brother, Killian, has been psychologically destroyed during his tour of duty in Vietnam; her school has expelled her; her father, whom she calls the Banker, is a constant source of fighting. Early on in life, Meghan exhibited extraordinary talent for and joy in running. As the story opens, she has lost a leg to cancer, and has retreated into rage, refusing to undergo rehabilitation. In the hospital she clings to one remaining love: her affection for Lincoln, who lived in her hometown of Springfield, Illinois. As she ponders scenes from her life and from his, she begins to write postcards to him in which she expresses her frustrations. One night after taking a powerful sleeping pill she finds a visitor in her room: Lincoln himself. Meghan’s postcards have replaced the holy cards she collected as a girl in Catholic school, and she passes on their power to her damaged brother. Lewis’s sentences are as spare as her brief chapters, presenting snapshots of Meghan reminiscent of her postcards. Scenes of anger, sorrow, and fleeting happiness merge to produce recognizable characters who walk and breathe in this impressive first effort. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-689-82852-7
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
Revisiting characters from The Cook’s Family (1998), Yep again explores personal and cultural conflicts arising between the generations in a Chinese-American family. Suddenly saddled with caring for four younger siblings after a wealthy businessman hires her widowed mother as a governess—or amah—for his daughter, Stephanie, Amy Chin is forced to miss several ballet rehearsals for Cinderella, to listen to glowing accounts of Stephanie’s sophistication, and to accept expensive clothing and other gifts from her. While gaining new insight into how Cinderella’s stepsisters must have felt, Amy’s understandable resentment is compounded by the news that Stephanie will be moving in while her father is away on a trip. Yep builds that feeling to fever pitch, then dispels it by casting Stephanie as a lonely child hurt by one parent’s death and the other’s neglect; becoming friends, Stephanie and Amy clear the air and mend some fences with their well-meaning parents in a climactic face-off. The characters, most of them familiar from previous appearances, are distinct if not particularly complex, the San Francisco setting is vividly drawn, and the issues are laid out in plain terms and tidily resolved. It’s formulaic, but not entirely superficial. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23040-8
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
McLaren (Inside the Walls of Troy, 1996, etc.) writes of a girl’s wish to understand her new surroundings, and to be understood by those who love her. When Kate’s father decides to move back to his homeland to work as a lawyer for Hawaiian sovereignty, Kate is devastated at the thought of leaving their comfortable home and affluent lifestyle (not to mention a beloved pet) behind. From the first she hates Oahu and the seedy little apartment the family moves into. Worse, Kate enters school and discovers what it is to be part of a despised minority; she is half Hawaiian, but her fair looks brand her as haole, looked on with contempt at best. Even in her family she experiences rejection; her Hawaiian relatives more or less ignore Kate when they’re not fighting with her father over the means they should use to gain their freedom from the US government. Kate’s past training in ballet comes to her rescue when she learns the hula, the historic interpretive dance that is a major part of Hawaiian culture. To her surprise, her relatives realize that she is not just learning to dance beautifully but is coming to respect their traditions and way of life. It’s a fine story, made even more interesting through its the unflinching look at a place most mainlanders think of as a tropical paradise. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-82393-2
Page Count: 143
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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