Felicia ("Felix"), 12, recounts her adventures with stepsister Amy, also 12, and Amy's 10-year-old brother, Phillip, when the three are dragged along on their parents' honeymoon. With her attention focused on her bitter feud with Amy, Felix carelessly gives a friendly stranger (Grace), met on the street in Toledo, an exaggerated impression of the family's wealth. Later, her parents accept Grace's offer to take the three kids to to see some windmills—a venture that promptly becomes a kidnapping, planned by Grace as a transfer of what she sees as excess wealth to more needy children. But the plan is perverted by the greed of her unscrupulous accomplices—and, horrified, Grace finally helps her victims escape; in turn, they conceal her part in the venture. The beginning here is comfortably predictable, the climax appropriately suspenseful (as Amy and Felix flee, hide, bicker, and warily begin to accept each other), and the conclusion has some satisfying twists that grow logically out of the lightly sketched but plausible characterizations. While the parents' trust in Grace is improbable, it's an acceptable premise for the genre. Good recreational fare.
Pub Date: March 18, 1991
ISBN: 0-395-55696-1
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
1882
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-689-82979-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1999
Fans of Cameron’s Huey and Julian stories (More Stories Huey Tells, 1997, etc.) are in for a treat as Gloria, their friend from those tales, gets a book of her own and graciously allows the two brothers to share it . In the first tale, Gloria makes a wonderful card for her mother, but the wind blows it away and it ends up in the cage of a cantankerous parrot. Thanks to Mr. Bates, Huey and Julian’s dad, the day is saved, as is the burgeoning friendship that Gloria and the boys have struck up with new neighbor Latisha in the story, “The Promise.” In another story, Gloria has to deal with a huge problem—fractions—and this time it’s her dad who helps her through it. Mr. Bates proves helpful again when the group trains an “obsessed” puppy, while Gloria’s mother is supportive when Gloria is unintentionally hurt by her three best friends. The stories are warm and funny, as Gloria, a spunky kid who gets into some strange predicaments, finds out that her friends and wise, loving adults are good to have around when trouble beckons. Great fun, with subtly placed, positive messages that never take center stage. (b&w illustrations) (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: March 9, 2000
ISBN: 0-374-32670-3
Page Count: 93
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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