One turbulent day in the life of 14-year-old Suzanne slowly reveals her past. Living with her strange, widowed mother in a small European village, which is beset with emotional conflict, she contrives to stir things up even further. Readers will struggle to discover the reasons for all of the tension in the village, aside from simple personality conflicts. It seems that Suzanne’s veterinarian father was the victim of an accidental shooting by the local squire. Her mother has become something of a hermit, but they have maintained a warm relationship with Helen, a midwife who delivered Suzanne and who owns a kennel. The townspeople want to get rid of Helen’s barking dogs, and Suzanne’s mother suddenly decides to sign the petition, further angering the girl. Suzanne pursues a young puppeteer who visits the village during its annual summer festival, and under his influence, she decides to release the dogs. When the puppeteer catches them, Suzanne returns to her mother and hopes their wounds will be healed. Many young readers will have difficulty understanding the story, full of slow-moving descriptive passages and little action. The turmoil of the village reflects Suzanne’s adolescent turmoil, her conflicts with her mother, and her lingering pain over her father’s death. More literary-minded readers may, with some effort, find a story of adolescent angst that will satisfy them, but it may not be worth the energy. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-886910-48-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2000
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
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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