Downing (Daphne's Song) has written a sensitive, moving story that focuses on a family in crisis. When Dad loses his job at the steel mill, 12-year-old Kathleen, her mother, and her three younger sisters must leave their Baltimore home and move to the Chesapeake Bay community of Bay View to live with Uncle Charlie, Aunt Doris, and spoiled 14-year-old Fay. Looking after the younger girls is a job that falls to skinny, brainy, "sensible" Kathleen, who does her best but never seems able to please her tired, tense Mom or the rest of the adults. Kathleen, her 10-yea-old sister Patsy, and Fay are sworn enemies; nevertheless, the sisters discover that Fay has a secret—Joe, 20-year-old sailor-boyfriend who thinks Fay's 18. All the sisters eventually meet Joe at the beach. He's likable and fun and seems to take a brotherly interest in Kathleen, who develops a crush on him. At a local carnival, Patsy tattles about Fay's real age to Joe, and Fay is grounded when her parents see them together. Kathleen feels sorry for her cousin, and the two become more or less friends, to Patsy's chargin. Kathleen's relationship with her mother is on shakier ground, however, especially after she learns that Mom is pregnant again. She finally confronts her mother in an uncharacteristic explosion of temper, which serves to clear the air and to reestablish their loving, confiding relationship. Dad takes a job at Uncle Charlie's gas station, which means the family will be together, albeit in Bay View, not in Baltimore. Downing has drawn an evocative portrait of the struggling American family of our times. Readers who come from similar backgrounds will find it easy to identify with them.
Pub Date: Oct. 21, 1985
ISBN: 0380716356
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1985
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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