This ersatz diary, in the Dear America series, belongs to Molly MacKenzie Flaherty, a 15-year-old Boston high-school student during the Vietnam War. Molly’s brother Patrick (The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, p. 744) has volunteered to serve in the Marines and the family finds itself in the center of the morass that marked the war: nightly death totals, growing anti-war feelings, deaths of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and the frustrating doublespeak of politicians. Molly’s large Catholic family lives in Brighton, where a number of her male relatives are firefighters. The heroism of the soldiers is juxtaposed with the heroism of her relatives as they fight fires in the city, even a fire started by rioters following the death of Martin Luther King. The four-and-a-half months that Molly chronicles are unbelievably busy ones. Molly attends her first high-school parties, watches the silly sitcoms that blare from all those new color televisions, meets peace protesters in Harvard Square, nurses her father back to health after one more terrible evening of firefighting, reads the surprising book her mother has given her (The Feminine Mystique), finds a volunteer job at the VA hospital working with amputees fresh from Vietnam, waits for news of Patrick following his injury, and eventually helps him return to civilian life. This is more like a vehicle for the author’s research than a diary. Readers of this popular series might not mind the pure volume of historical details, amazing coincidences, and overblown writing style, but they will certainly question the supposed age of the writer. However, very few stories of stateside siblings of soldiers exist and this might inspire some readers to think about life at home during the Vietnam War. A lengthy historical note with photographs follows the fictional diary. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-439-14889-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002
An outstanding new edition of this popular modern classic (Newbery Award, 1961), with an introduction by Zena Sutherland and...
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-395-53680-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A beautiful tale of perseverance.
A young girl tackles a learning disability and the uncertainty of daily life in early-20th-century Cuba.
Ten years old at the tale’s opening, Josefa “Fefa” de la Caridad Uría Peña lives with her parents and 10 siblings on their farm, Goatzacoalco. Diagnosed with “word blindness” (a misnomer for dyslexia), Fefa struggles at school and in a home rich with words, including the writings of Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío. Discounting a doctor’s opinion that “Fefa will never be able / to read, or write, / or be happy / in school,” her mother gives her a blank diary: “Let the words sprout / like seedlings, / then relax and watch / as your wild diary / grows.” Basing her tale on the life of her maternal grandmother, Engle captures the frustrations, setbacks and triumphs of Fefa’s language development in this often lyrical free-verse novel. Her reading difficulties are heightened when bandits begin roving the countryside, kidnapping local children for ransom: “All I can think of / is learning how / to read / terrifying / ransom notes.” The author gives readers a portrait of a tumultuous period in Cuban history and skillfully integrates island flora, fauna and mythology into Fefa’s first-person tale. This canvas heightens Fefa’s determination to rise above the expectations of her siblings, peers and society.
A beautiful tale of perseverance. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 20, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-58131-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
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