From Beard (The Pumpkin Man from Piney Creek, 1995), an easy-to-read tale based on a true incident that the citizens of Wetumka, Oklahomain a classic case of making lemons into lemonadestill celebrate with an annual ``Sucker Day.'' When F. Bam Morrison steps out of his turquoise blue Chevy and announces that he's the advance man for Bohn's United Circus Shows, the whole town of Wetumka rushes to buy ticketsall but crotchety ol' man Swank, who snorts that Morrison is only a flimflam man, a two-faced weasel. To Bobbi Jo Hailey, 10, and her friend/rival Clara Jean, Morrison is a true marvel, offering Bobbie Jo advice on how to lose her stutter, exchanging ``free'' tickets for meals and other amenities, wowing the ladies with his grand manners, and smoothly selling circus program ads. Ol' man Swank is right, though; Morrison has the grace to apologize to Bobbie Jo before making his escape. The people of Wetumka make the best of it, deciding that if they can't have a circus, at least they can have a parade. Side plotsboth girls belong to single-parent families, and Clara Jean's father is an alcoholicweigh the story down but don't sink it; flashily dressed and positively glowing with trustworthiness, Morrison cuts a genial figure in Christelow's comfortably casual black- and-white drawings. (Fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: March 25, 1998
ISBN: 0-374-32346-1
Page Count: 85
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
SEEN & HEARD
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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