A gloriously literate dissection of the hormonal under- and over-currents of junior high school, as performed by Mikey Elsinger and Margalo Epps, back for their fourth appearance. In the eighth grade, apparently, thoughts of just about everyone lightly (and not so lightly) turn to love, and the two Bad Girls are no exception. While Margalo quietly and unrequitedly suffers over Mr. Schramm’s mischievous smile, however, Mikey somewhat astonishingly falls—flat—for Shawn Macavity, whose newly won part in The Lady’s Not for Burning has made him the most-sought-after male in school. Mikey’s pursuit of her chosen prey is typically unsubtle, hopeless, and hilarious (she brings homemade cookies to school for him and chalks their initials on all the chalkboards). It also becomes the narrative motor for Voigt’s (It’s Not Easy Being Bad, 2000, etc.) explorations of romantic love among both students and adults. While Mikey’s infatuation makes her an object of much derision in the girls’ bathrooms, her divorced parents enact their own love dramas. Her self-centered mother does not even invite Mikey to her second wedding; her much kinder father works hard to balance fatherhood against a return to the world of dating. As always, the clinical observations of junior-high culture are spot on: “The way rumors grew and spread in junior high, it was like they practiced several different forms of propagation all at the same time . . . ” Even as the macrocosm is so dispassionately encapsulated, the microcosm of one individual’s emotional state is beautifully evoked: “Mikey went out to the kitchen and poured a bowl of Cap’n Crunches. . . . The milk-and-sugar taste, combined with the friendly crunching sound inside her head as she chewed, made her feel like a little kid.” This may well be the Bad Girls’ most delicious outing yet; readers will, along with Mikey, look forward to the next time she falls “in lurve. . . . It’s pretty much fun.” (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-82471-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002
Year-round fun.
Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.”
This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot; it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout. And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. The arena may be a small hick town, but the battle for domination over that tiny turf is fierce, and Grandma Dowdel is a canny player for whom losing isn’t an option. The first-person narration is infused with rich, colorful language—“She was skinnier than a toothpick with termites”—and Mary Alice’s shrewd, prickly observations: “Anybody who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.”
Year-round fun. (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 978-0-8037-2518-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If Rotten Ralph were a boy instead of a cat, he might be Joey, the hyperactive hero of Gantos's new book, except that Joey is never bad on purpose. In the first-person narration, it quickly becomes clear that he can't help himself; he's so wound up that he not only practically bounces off walls, he literally swallows his house key (which he wears on a string around his neck and which he pull back up, complete with souvenirs of the food he just ate). Gantos's straightforward view of what it's like to be Joey is so honest it hurts. Joey has been abandoned by his alcoholic father and, for a time, by his mother (who also drinks); his grandmother, just as hyperactive as he is, abuses Joey while he's in her care. One mishap after another leads Joey first from his regular classroom to special education classes and then to a special education school. With medication, counseling, and positive reinforcement, Joey calms down. Despite a lighthearted title and jacket painting, the story is simultaneously comic and horrific; Gantos takes readers right inside a human whirlwind where the ride is bumpy and often frightening, especially for Joey. But a river of compassion for the characters runs through the pages, not only for Joey but for his overextended mom and his usually patient, always worried (if only for their safety) teachers. Mature readers will find this harsh tale softened by unusual empathy and leavened by genuinely funny events. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-374-33664-4
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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