Thirteen-year-old Jedediah Barstow has just been orphaned during a crossing of the Kaw River. Without a family, he is forced to depend on the generosity of the other pioneers and on his own substantial inner resources. Writing in journal format, Levine (Darkness over Denmark, 1999, etc.) has resolved some of the constraints of the form to tell a gripping, funny, and memorable story of one boy’s adventure to Oregon. Readers who are unfamiliar with the details of life on the road will be fascinated by Jedediah’s observations: how butter was made, the many uses of buffalo chips, how to divert stampeding buffalo, burial techniques, the myriad decisions the travelers had to make every day, and the various dangers posed by rivers, wildlife, and mountains. Levine, through Jed’s well-defined voice, tells a memorable story, filled with the humor, sorrow, and excitement. The journal feels real because Levine leaves in some mistakes in grammar and has Jed comment on his difficulty with language. Poignant “mistakes” remind the reader that Jed is a boy who is slowly recovering from a trauma. (When Jed meets a little girl who is the age of his deceased sister, he accidentally calls the girl “Sally,” then crosses out his sister’s name to write “Bekka.”) But this fictional journal is much more than a vehicle for Levine’s research. Underlying the details of daily life on the trail is the story of Jed, the grieving orphan. Thrust into adulthood by unspeakable loss, Jed learns what it means to be a grown-up as he observes the various men and women on the Trail. Cruel Mr. Henshaw, with his worsening temper and alcoholism, allows young Jed to join his family as a servant. Jacob Fenster, an intelligent and thoughtful Jewish man, comes to Jed’s rescue many times and forces the young man to reflect on his own religious prejudices. Fix-it man Mr. Littleton hires Jed and teaches him how to fix the many things that break each day, from wagon wheels to personal relationships to false teeth. Jedediah Barstow is an unforgettable character in this fine story of bravery, grief, friendship, and community. (historical note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-439-06310-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 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
Playing on his customary theme that children have more on the ball than adults give them credit for, Clements (Big Al and Shrimpy, p. 951, etc.) pairs a smart, unhappy, rich kid and a small-town teacher too quick to judge on appearances. Knowing that he’ll only be finishing up the term at the local public school near his new country home before hieing off to an exclusive academy, Mark makes no special effort to fit in, just sitting in class and staring moodily out the window. This rubs veteran science teacher Bill Maxwell the wrong way, big time, so that even after Mark realizes that he’s being a snot and tries to make amends, all he gets from Mr. Maxwell is the cold shoulder. Matters come to a head during a long-anticipated class camping trip; after Maxwell catches Mark with a forbidden knife (a camp mate’s, as it turns out) and lowers the boom, Mark storms off into the woods. Unaware that Mark is a well-prepared, enthusiastic (if inexperienced) hiker, Maxwell follows carelessly, sure that the “slacker” will be waiting for rescue around the next bend—and breaks his ankle running down a slope. Reconciliation ensues once he hobbles painfully into Mark’s neatly organized camp, and the two make their way back together. This might have some appeal to fans of Gary Paulsen’s or Will Hobbs’s more catastrophic survival tales, but because Clements pauses to explain—at length—everyone’s history, motives, feelings, and mindset, it reads more like a scenario (albeit an empowering one, at least for children) than a story. Worthy—but just as Maxwell underestimates his new student, so too does Clement underestimate his readers’ ability to figure out for themselves what’s going on in each character’s life and head. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-82596-X
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2002
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