When Eleanor's family moves from Marietta to Decatur, Georgia, it's popularity panic. Hoping to impress the new crowd, particularly silver-blond, earring-swinging Misty (jealously guarded by possessive Jessica), Eleanor tries her ``Pig Face'' grimace and notes on toilet-paper, antics considered cute and funny in her old school; here, they backfire. She tries to avoid nerdy kids like shy ``egghead'' Charlie, who hangs around her backyard keeping in touch with the ghost of Joseph, a young bugler killed there in a Civil War battle. A secret fantasy of being a pioneer girl also links Eleanor to the past, enabling her to sense Joseph's presence. Still, she's interested only in popularity; she uses the ghost as an excuse for a party for her prospective friends—another plan that goes awry. Meanwhile, Charlie's convinced that contact with Joseph is growing weaker because his bugle is missing from its burial place. Sure enough, when the bugle turns up, firm contact is reestablished. Descriptions of the apparitions comprise some of this first novel's best writing, but the opportunity to develop a good ghost story with a taste of history is frittered away: even readers sympathetic to Eleanor's concerns will lose patience with her obsession and her infantile behavior (she seems more like a fourth-grader than a seventh), and be disappointed when this potentially exciting tale vanishes into thin air. (Fiction 9-11)
Pub Date: April 20, 1993
ISBN: 0-395-64527-1
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay.
Renowned Latin American writer Alvarez has created another story about cultural identity, but this time the primary character is 11-year-old Miguel Guzmán.
When Tía Lola arrives to help the family, Miguel and his hermana, Juanita, have just moved from New York City to Vermont with their recently divorced mother. The last thing Miguel wants, as he's trying to fit into a predominantly white community, is a flamboyant aunt who doesn't speak a word of English. Tía Lola, however, knows a language that defies words; she quickly charms and befriends all the neighbors. She can also cook exotic food, dance (anywhere, anytime), plan fun parties, and tell enchanting stories. Eventually, Tía Lola and the children swap English and Spanish ejercicios, but the true lesson is "mutual understanding." Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Alvarez makes the reader as much a part of the "language" lessons as the characters. This story seamlessly weaves two culturaswhile letting each remain intact, just as Miguel is learning to do with his own life. Like all good stories, this one incorporates a lesson just subtle enough that readers will forget they're being taught, but in the end will understand themselves, and others, a little better, regardless of la lengua nativa—the mother tongue.
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80215-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The book is a cute, but rather standard offering from Avi (Tom, Babette, and Simon, p. 776, etc.).
An adolescent mouse named Poppy is off on a romantic tryst with her rebel boyfriend when they are attacked by Mr. Ocax, the owl who rules over the area.
He kills the boyfriend, but Poppy escapes and Mr. Ocax vows to catch her. Mr. Ocax has convinced all the mice that he is their protector when, in fact, he preys on them mercilessly. When the mice ask his permission to move to a new house, he refuses, blaming Poppy for his decision. Poppy suspects that there is another reason Mr. Ocax doesn't want them to move and investigates to clear her name. With the help of a prickly old porcupine and her quick wits, Poppy defeats her nemesis and her own fears, saving her family in the bargain.
The book is a cute, but rather standard offering from Avi (Tom, Babette, and Simon, p. 776, etc.). (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-531-09483-9
Page Count: 147
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
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