Julia, 11, tells how she is sent for the summer term, in the dark days before WW II, to a bleak old house she barely remembers, where her father (Gerald) and stepmother (Trudl) now live. There, to her horror, angry voices from the past speak through her at unexpected moments—Joshua Harken, a 17th-century alchemist whose tragic end remains a mystery; her own parents, in the throes of their long-ago divorce. Julia feels abandoned, and with reason: her siblings are grown, her mother has a new family, and she's to be sent away to school in the fall. It's not clear why her parents decided that she should attend the odd little school in Dune for a single term. Her father is not even here: he's in Lucerne to rehearse his new play, leaving Julia with a collection of violent, terrifying plays to read—like Dr. Faustus and The Duchess of Malfi. Trudl, involved in her own tragedy (Gerald married her simply to rescue her from Austria; her love for him is unrequited), inexplicably assigns Julia a gloomy, distant bedroom and is abstracted and anxious at the rare times when she returns from her enigmatic errands. There's a fair amount of interesting material here, but it isn't blended into a coherent whole. Julia's frightening possession is never explained; the Harken mystery is left half unravelled; and Trudl, whose real troubles are more urgent than Julia's gothic horrors, remains a minor character, her future beyond Julia's ken. This gifted, prolific author does evoke a spooky setting and convey the unease before the war; but the novel falls far short of her best work.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1989
ISBN: 0385299753
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1989
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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