An eighth-grade health class assignment gets Alice McKinley and friends thinking about choices and consequences in this eighth installment of one of the best series running. Each student is handed a hypothetical situation that must be handled as if it were real: Alice and Patrick are to marry, honeymoon, and set up a home on $5,000; Pamela is pregnant; other classmates have to buy a car, arrange a funeral, and the like. For Alice, who already suspects that life is an "obstacle course, with detours, yield signs, stop signs, and cautions," the assignment turns out to be fraught with eye-opening difficulties and tough decisions. Naylor (Alice the Brave, 1995, etc.) delivers Alice's observations in her usual direct way, surrounding them with hilarious dialogue, plus new episodes in the love lives of Alice's father and older brother. When a willful classmate mendaciously accuses a teacher of making a pass, and a neighbor goes into labor, Alice finds herself in challenging situations that are anything but hypothetical—and comes through with flying colors. Pleasure and purpose are seamlessly combined in this comic, expertly crafted episode. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-689-80358-3
Page Count: 139
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Curtis debuts with a ten-year-old's lively account of his teenaged brother's ups and downs. Ken tries to make brother Byron out to be a real juvenile delinquent, but he comes across as more of a comic figure: getting stuck to the car when he kisses his image in a frozen side mirror, terrorized by his mother when she catches him playing with matches in the bathroom, earning a shaved head by coming home with a conk. In between, he defends Ken from a bully and buries a bird he kills by accident. Nonetheless, his parents decide that only a long stay with tough Grandma Sands will turn him around, so they all motor from Michigan to Alabama, arriving in time to witness the infamous September bombing of a Sunday school. Ken is funny and intelligent, but he gives readers a clearer sense of Byron's character than his own and seems strangely unaffected by his isolation and harassment (for his odd look—he has a lazy eye—and high reading level) at school. Curtis tries to shoehorn in more characters and subplots than the story will comfortably bear—as do many first novelists—but he creates a well-knit family and a narrator with a distinct, believable voice. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-32175-9
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sixth-grader Troy White is a one-of-a-kind athlete with the ability to predict which plays any football team will run even before the ball is snapped. However, his mental talents don’t help him crack his youth-league team’s starting lineup (the coach plays his own son at quarterback). Troy dreams of pitching his talent to his beloved Atlanta Falcons, helping them post a winning season. Seemingly an after-school-special waiting to happen, and marked by cinematic writing, this feel-good story has a place in libraries fielding requests for clean and uplifting stories. Touching scenes of underdog Troy wishing he had a father to help him are contrasted with very realistic on-the-field football action, which is not surprising considering that the author is a former NFL player. Many actual players’ names are dropped throughout the story but some, like Randy Moss, may soon switch teams. More than a sports story, romance pops up as Troy nudges star Falcon linebacker Seth Halloway to date Troy’s mother. This light and fast-paced story will appeal to the tween crowd. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: July 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-112270-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2007
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