From the moment when 13-year-old Elinor is awakened by the police arresting her father for embezzlement, Alcock's latest exploration of the dynamics of uncommon troubles holds attention. After surreptitiously slipping Elinor a receipt for luggage left at Victoria Station, Dad is whisked away, leaving the family nothing to live on. Pretty stepmother Sophia, only 21, fails to rise to the occasion: ``You couldn't dislike Sophia...But you couldn't depend on her.'' After summoning an odd lot of estranged relatives to split up the other three children, she takes baby Bambi and goes home to her mother in Italy. Elinor, sent to a curmudgeonly great-aunt, Mrs. Carter, discovers that her father has defrauded her of her life's savings. When she eventually unlocks the case retrieved from Victoria, it proves to contain evidence that Dad planned to abandon them all, plus only a fraction of the missing money. What to do with it? Honesty prevails, despite various urgent needs; and, unexpectedly, Sophia reappears to reunite the family. Besides Elinor, the story is enriched with several adroitly drawn characters, notably Timon, an abused boy who has been adopted by Mrs. Carter and with whom Elinor develops a prickly friendship; it's enlivened by suspenseful turns, including a confrontation in a dangerously decrepit abandoned house. As usual with this fine author (The Cuckoo Sister, 1986), compelling dialogue, imaginative plotting, and unusual insight into moral frailties and some unexpected strengths tie it all together. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-385-30564-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-73343-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world.
Sent to stay with octogenarian relatives for the summer, 14-year-old Mike ends up coordinating a community drive to raise $40,000 for the adoption of a Romanian orphan. He’ll never be his dad's kind of engineer, but he learns he’s great at human engineering.
Mike’s math learning disability is matched by his widower father's lack of social competence; the Giant Genius can’t even reliably remember his son’s name. Like many of the folks the boy comes to know in Do Over, Penn.—his great-uncle Poppy silent in his chair, the multiply pierced-and-tattooed Gladys from the bank and “a homeless guy” who calls himself Past—Mike feels like a failure. But in spite of his own lack of confidence, he provides the kick start they need to cope with their losses and contribute to the campaign. Using the Internet (especially YouTube), Mike makes use of town talents and his own webpage design skills and entrepreneurial imagination. Math-definition chapter headings (Compatible Numbers, Zero Property, Tessellations) turn out to apply well to human actions in this well-paced, first-person narrative. Erskine described Asperger’s syndrome from the inside in Mockingbird (2010). Here, it’s a likely cause for the rift between father and son touchingly mended at the novel's cinematic conclusion.
A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: June 9, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25505-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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