In 1956, Edie Jo Houp's small town of Half Moon, North Carolina, is bitterly divided over the issue of letting the town's minority Indian population send their children to the vacation bible school. Her family is divided as well; since her father stood up in church to publicly support the integration they have been shunned by many in the community. Even Edie Jo is divided. On one hand, she and her brother narrowly escape an attack by a gang of teenagers who are Indian; an Indian boy is the prime arson suspect when her grandmother's house is burned to the ground. On the other hand, she falls in love with a charismatic older boy named Cherokee Fish, the brother of the suspected arsonist. This powerful, passionate, and deeply moving novel is ripe with intriguing characters, and fills readers with the tension and foreboding of a town turned against itself. Oughton (The Magic Weaver of Rugs, 1994, etc.) offers no simplistic solutions or black and white situations; good and bad exists on all sides and within all people, and no one is a saint (although the angry and preternaturally wise Cherokee Fish comes close). Most important is the message that societies don't change, only the individual does, through a conscious decision to match actions with beliefs. Novels about the evils of prejudice are common, but this intelligent novel is uncommon indeed, and rings with the truth of heartfelt experience. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-395-70737-4
Page Count: 161
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995
When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-73343-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world.
Sent to stay with octogenarian relatives for the summer, 14-year-old Mike ends up coordinating a community drive to raise $40,000 for the adoption of a Romanian orphan. He’ll never be his dad's kind of engineer, but he learns he’s great at human engineering.
Mike’s math learning disability is matched by his widower father's lack of social competence; the Giant Genius can’t even reliably remember his son’s name. Like many of the folks the boy comes to know in Do Over, Penn.—his great-uncle Poppy silent in his chair, the multiply pierced-and-tattooed Gladys from the bank and “a homeless guy” who calls himself Past—Mike feels like a failure. But in spite of his own lack of confidence, he provides the kick start they need to cope with their losses and contribute to the campaign. Using the Internet (especially YouTube), Mike makes use of town talents and his own webpage design skills and entrepreneurial imagination. Math-definition chapter headings (Compatible Numbers, Zero Property, Tessellations) turn out to apply well to human actions in this well-paced, first-person narrative. Erskine described Asperger’s syndrome from the inside in Mockingbird (2010). Here, it’s a likely cause for the rift between father and son touchingly mended at the novel's cinematic conclusion.
A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: June 9, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25505-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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