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OPHIE OUT OF OZ

Name: OPHIE OUT OF OZ
Author: Kathleen O’Dell
ISBN: 0-8037-2930-8

by Kathleen O’Dell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2004

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Ophie’s family has just moved again, leaving behind Ophie’s cherished best friend. Believing she looks and sings like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Ophie blunders the very first day at her new school by stating that the two popular “TV Girls” don’t sing all that well. Ostracized, Ophie finds herself paired up with the “cootie catcher,” Brittany. Throughout, Ophie is both misunderstood and reckless and only makes things worse as she tries to raise her status. She, does however, finally nab the attention of the snobby “TV Girls.” At what price? She sums it up herself by saying, “I don’t know who to be anymore.” The story sometimes verges on the predictable. Readers will sense that Ophie is going to sell her soul for popularity and can guess that she’s going to regret it. And she does. But overall Ophie’s sparkle and depth of character at the author’s hand make this an engaging look at the issue of pre-teen identity crisis. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: May 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-8037-2930-8

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2004

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
AGNES PARKER...KEEPING COOL IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
by Kathleen O’Dell

- BOOK REVIEW
BAD TICKETS
by Kathleen O’Dell

- BOOK REVIEW
AGNES PARKER...HAPPY CAMPER?
by Kathleen O’Dell & illustrated by Charise Mericle Harper

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RETURN TO SENDER

by Julia Alvarez ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 13, 2009

Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read.

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Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers.

Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler’s father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari’s family. As Tyler and Mari’s friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez’s novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what’s illegal and what’s wrong. Mari’s experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities.

Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)

Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-375-85838-3

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ALREADY A BUTTERFLY
by Julia Alvarez ; illustrated by Raúl Colón

- BOOK REVIEW
WHERE DO THEY GO?
by Julia Alvarez ; illustrated by Sabra Field

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TÍA LOLA ENDED UP STARTING OVER
by Julia Alvarez

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TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

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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.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)