So swiftly do the pages turn, however, the story may stay with readers, but the poetry probably won’t.
An outcast at school and within her own family, “Lexi / (rhymes with sexy) / Mcleen, sixteen,” articulates a life of desperation and determination in this verse novel.
The format keeps readers moving quickly through familiar teen-literature motifs (pot smoking, critical classmates and family, first crushes and their “intoxicating / fumes from / across the room”). But beyond the standard challenges, Lexi’s first-person account is like a run-on sentence of personal sadness: alcoholic dad in jail; overwhelmed, critical, anorexic and bipolar stepmother; autistic half brother; infant half sister claimed by crib death one year earlier. During a health-class project, traumatized Lexi—recalling the lost sister—paints her “Almost-Real Baby” girl doll blue because “Pink stinks. / It makes me think too much.” Mental health intervention, a supportive librarian and meeting the right guy all help pull Lexi back from the brink. With varying verse structures and styles, High uses typeface changes and word placement to magnify the message, with varying degrees of effectiveness. At its best, it ranges from the cleverly contemporary (“Zelda’s a walking, talking Google search. Yahoo!”) to the credibly evocative (“I like / to open my / window / this time / of the year. / / It smells / like a painting / by Norman Rockwell”).
So swiftly do the pages turn, however, the story may stay with readers, but the poetry probably won’t. (Verse fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62250-883-9
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
Ephemeral—unlike the art here (some of it, at least) and those fondly remembered little books.
Chicken soup for fans of Golden Books, from the line’s editorial director.
Reasoning that hard times have come to America (“The chickens have come home to roost, and their names are Debt, Depression, and Diabetes”), Muldrow offers this book as palliative. She gathers single illustrations from 61 Little Golden Books and adds pithy captions as anodynes, such as “Don’t panic…” (beneath Tibor Gergely’s 1948 image of a dismayed child holding detached braids) or “Have some pancakes” (Richard Scarry, 1949). Though some of her advice has a modern inflection (“Don’t forget your antioxidants!”), the pictures all come from titles published between 1942 and 1964 and so, despite the great diversity of artistic styles, have a quaint period look. Not to mention quaint period values, from views of apron-wearing housewives and pipe-smoking men (or bears) to, with but two exceptions, an all-white cast of humans. Furthermore, despite the title’s implication, the exhortations don’t always reflect the original story’s lesson or theme; rather than “Make a budget—and stick to it!” the lad in Miriam Young’s 5 Pennies To Spend (illustrated by Corinne Malvern, 1955) actually used his hoard to help others in need.
Ephemeral—unlike the art here (some of it, at least) and those fondly remembered little books. (Picture book. 12 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-307-97761-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Golden Books/Random
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A missed opportunity to offer something special.
Starting with the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009 and working back to the early 1960s, Hunter-Gault covers many of the significant moments in the civil rights movement, including her own pivotal role in desegregating the University of Georgia.
It was 1961, the year Barack Obama was born, and Hunter-Gault and Hamilton “Hamp” Holmes became the first black students to enroll in the University of Georgia, confronting the racism at the core of the oldest public university in the United Sates. Hunter-Gault places their contribution in the larger context of the civil rights movement from 1960 through 1965, but she has trouble balancing her personal narrative with the many other stories she covers. Given the number of excellent volumes on the subject, this would have been a stronger contribution if Hunter-Gault had focused on her own story; as it is, the book is something of a hodge-podge. Her premise that the civil rights movement was launched in 1960 is questionable, given the many pioneers in the decades prior. Backmatter includes an extensive timeline, articles by other writers on issues of the movement and an extensive bibliography, but there is no mention of any of the excellent works on the subject available for young readers.
A missed opportunity to offer something special. (Nonfiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59643-605-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
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