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STOPPING TO HOME

A quiet tale of love and belonging, set on the coast of Maine in 1806. Eleven-year-old Abbie and her little brother Seth are effectively orphaned when their mother dies of smallpox and their mariner father is off at sea, incommunicado for the past six months. Determined to keep what’s left of her family together, Abbie offers her services to the young Mrs. Chase, herself soon widowed. As the seasons change from late winter through the year to winter again, Abbie, Seth, and Widow Chase find that they have molded themselves into a new family, to be completed by the birth of the widow’s baby in the winter. Newcomer Wait offers a quietly lyrical text that deftly and painlessly weaves into Abbie’s deeply personal story observations about the social and cultural structure of this small, seafaring town: “Captain Chase and his wife had three fireplaces. One in the kitchen, to be sure, but here was another, unused for now and that I could see was for company, and Mrs. Chase had talked of still another, upstairs. . . . It was hard to think of such luxury.” Abbie and Seth emerge as fully fledged characters, Abbie a thoughtful girl with few illusions about the world, and Seth a boy pining for his father and determined to follow in his footsteps. The Widow Chase is less well-realized; her determination to stay in her husband’s house rather than return to her family goes largely unexplained, and therefore her willingness to take up a trade (millinery) to maintain her independence in defiance of social mores is not sufficiently grounded. This is a small quibble with a novel otherwise finely crafted, with a very nearly perfect sense of its setting in place and time. (historical note) (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-689-83832-8

Page Count: 160

Publisher: McElderry

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001

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WRECKING BALL

From the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series , Vol. 14

Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.

The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.

When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.

Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Amulet/Abrams

Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019

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THE LEMONADE WAR

From the Lemonade War series , Vol. 1

Told from the point of view of two warring siblings, this could have been an engaging first chapter book. Unfortunately, the length makes it less likely to appeal to the intended audience. Jessie and Evan are usually good friends as well as sister and brother. But the news that bright Jessie will be skipping a grade to join Evan’s fourth-grade class creates tension. Evan believes himself to be less than clever; Jessie’s emotional maturity doesn’t quite measure up to her intelligence. Rivalry and misunderstandings grow as the two compete to earn the most money in the waning days of summer. The plot rolls along smoothly and readers will be able to both follow the action and feel superior to both main characters as their motivations and misconceptions are clearly displayed. Indeed, a bit more subtlety in characterization might have strengthened the book’s appeal. The final resolution is not entirely believable, but the emphasis on cooperation and understanding is clear. Earnest and potentially successful, but just misses the mark. (Fiction. 8-10)

Pub Date: April 23, 2007

ISBN: 0-618-75043-6

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2007

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