A moving, realistic tale about a troubled tween finding a path to strength and purpose.
A horse changes the life of a girl burdened by parental dysfunction and denial in this middle-grade novel.
On the outside, sixth grader Hummer’s house on her father’s dairy farm looks pretty normal. What is inside is the reason that no one is ever asked to visit: The girl’s mother, Leona, who sits rocking in front of a TV, is an extreme hoarder. Her anxiety reaches fever pitch if Hummer tries to throw anything away. Every room but 12-year-old Hummer’s is filled with smelly garbage. Her father, Virgil, who has moved into the barn, says that his wife is temporarily going through “a stage” and appears to accept Leona’s excuse that she can’t venture outside the house due to her “bad legs.” This leaves Hummer to see that her mother eats and to secretly do laundry and try to throw away trash without upsetting her. In Gruenberg’s compassionate treatment of each member of this dysfunctional family, there are no villains; it is clear that beneath Virgil’s denial of his wife’s mental deterioration, he cares for Leona. Love fuels Hummer’s protectiveness of her mother, too, despite being taunted at school when she tries to compensate for the shame she feels by making up self-aggrandizing stories about her life. As school ends for the summer, an unexpected catalyst for change arrives one moonlit night: a beautiful runaway Arabian mare. Hummer loves her old pony, but she’s been dreaming of a horse of her own, and this is meant to be, she thinks. Dubbing the mare Fox, Hummer is crushed to learn the animal belongs to a nearby rancher. In this deftly crafted, resonant story, the author shows how a bond develops between Hummer and Fox, how the tween and the rancher, crusty Old Man Riley, come to an understanding based on their mutual love and respect for horses and equestrian skills—and what happens as he becomes aware of the dysfunction shaping the girl’s life. Gruenberg deepens the book’s setting with an authentic depiction of a working dairy farm and horse care and training. The author’s pencil illustrations add visual interest.
A moving, realistic tale about a troubled tween finding a path to strength and purpose.Pub Date: June 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-395-51080-3
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Kenda Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The Baudelaire children—Violet, 14, Klaus, 12, and baby Sunny—are exceedingly ill-fated; Snicket extracts both humor and horror from their situation, as he gleefully puts them through one terrible ordeal after another. After receiving the news that their parents died in a fire, the three hapless orphans are delivered into the care of Count Olaf, who “is either a third cousin four times removed, or a fourth cousin three times removed.” The villainous Count Olaf is morally depraved and generally mean, and only takes in the downtrodden yet valiant children so that he can figure out a way to separate them from their considerable inheritance. The youngsters are able to escape his clutches at the end, but since this is the first installment in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there will be more ghastly doings. Written with old-fashioned flair, this fast-paced book is not for the squeamish: the Baudelaire children are truly sympathetic characters who encounter a multitude of distressing situations. Those who enjoy a little poison in their porridge will find it wicked good fun. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-440766-7
Page Count: 162
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
A beautifully rendered setting enfolds a disappointing plot.
In sixth grade, Izzy Mancini’s cozy, loving world falls apart.
She and her family have moved out of the cottage she grew up in. Her mother has spent the summer on Block Island instead of at home with Izzy. Her father has recently returned from military service in Afghanistan partially paralyzed and traumatized. The only people she can count on are Zelda and Piper, her best friends since kindergarten—that is, until the Haidary family moves into the upstairs apartment. At first, Izzy resents the new guests from Afghanistan even though she knows she should be grateful that Dr. Haidary saved her father’s life. But despite her initial resistance (which manifests at times as racism), as Izzy gets to know Sitara, the Haidarys’ daughter, she starts to question whether Zelda and Piper really are her friends for forever—and whether she has the courage to stand up for Sitara against the people she loves. Ferruolo weaves a rich setting, fully immersing readers in the largely white, coastal town of Seabury, Rhode Island. Disappointingly, the story resolves when Izzy convinces her classmates to accept Sitara by revealing the Haidarys’ past as American allies, a position that put them in so much danger that they had to leave home. The idea that Sitara should be embraced only because her family supported America, rather than simply because she is a human being, significantly undermines the purported message of tolerance for all.
A beautifully rendered setting enfolds a disappointing plot. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-30909-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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