A moving, well-written tale about an unusual friendship.
A middle-grade boy finds comfort and emotional growth in his friendship with an older woman in this novel.
Summer vacation isn’t starting out well for Russell, called Rusty. He failed fifth grade math and now has to go to summer school. His closest pal, Walter, is at sleepaway camp for six weeks. But worst of all, his mother is temporarily gone, being treated for depression; it’s unknown when she’ll return. Rusty takes his mind off things by fixing up an old catboat. One day, Hazel Perkins, an older woman in a wheelchair, asks him to take her sailing. Rusty puts her off but later agrees to earn money by doing chores at her house. They settle into a comforting routine, starting with a snack and math homework, then chores. Besides the money, Rusty appreciates Hazel’s agreeably cluttered house, her seaside paintings, and her friendly cat, Marigold. The day before his mother’s return, Rusty finally takes Hazel for a joyous sail. Though sorrow follows, Rusty gains a firmer sense of what’s important. In his third book for children, Loizeaux sensitively evokes his narrator’s pain and confusion as well as his insights. Rusty realizes he can repair his boat, “unlike some of the other things that I couldn’t do anything about.” Poetically striking details make scenes come alive, as with Hazel’s house, filled with “books, shells, pottery, dried seaweed, lacy snake skins…and an entire standing skeleton of what might have been a fox.” That Rusty allows himself to be changed by Hazel’s friendship and guidance speaks well of him in a subtle way, and it’s touching to see their mutual caring and compassion. Throughout, the author effectively employs maritime metaphors to tie everything together. Jacobsen’s lively, well-composed pencil illustrations nicely capture the book’s emotions.
A moving, well-written tale about an unusual friendship.Pub Date: March 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-947159-42-6
Page Count: 186
Publisher: One Elm Books
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Mildly amusing, with a silly, stomach-turning premise conveying sober concepts.
When a bizarre ritual goes haywire, Kids Say the Darndest Things meets Lord of the Flies.
In St. Polonius-on-the-Fjord, citizens over 12 partake in the annual commemoration of the town’s founding by eating of the Sacred Bear Liver. They engage in this loathsome rite to avoid falling into a monthslong slumber, a fate suffered by the original settlers. This year, white Jean Huddy participates for the first time but secretly barfs up her portion. Then, against all odds, everyone over 12 who did sample the liver falls fast asleep, leaving only the town’s children—including Jean and Isara, a 13-year-old boy of Thai heritage—awake and obligated to assume their parents’ jobs. The author mines a few laughs from kids’ performing adult work, but some aspects are sinister: the mayor’s xenophobic son revels in his tyranny; the town bullies are strict law enforcers. An unconvincing mystery subplot involves a startling revelation about what happened to the grown-ups, the discovery of a secret formula to reverse the sleep, and Jean’s and her friends’ frantic scramble to interpret and use it to awaken the sleepers. Themes abound in this political satire, with its “Sleeping Beauty” and Shakespearean overtones, including clueless adults, governmental corruption, shady corporate dealings, usurpation of power, anti-immigration sentiments, unethical science, and animal cruelty. Savvy readers may glean some hints about the current charged political scene. These disparate storylines coalesce uneasily.
Mildly amusing, with a silly, stomach-turning premise conveying sober concepts. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1785-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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