Hazel’s inquisitiveness, independence and imperfections are a winning combination.
If Harriet M. Welsch lived in 1953 in a community vulnerable to McCarthyism, this might be her story.
Fifth-grader Hazel has short hair, a Mysteries Notebook and, when the school day ends, dungarees. Her stomping grounds are Memory’s Garden—the cemetery that her parents run—and their sleepy Vermont town. Hazel sneaks canned goods from her kitchen to a graveyard mausoleum so that when the Russians attack, her family can use it as a fallout shelter. Her fear of Communists comes from duck-and-cover drills at school, Sen. McCarthy’s search for “Reds” at a local factory, the repeated failures of adults to explain anything and her own proclivity to fill in the gaps. In addition to threatening atomic annihilation, the Russians will put people into sausage grinders and eliminate ice cream floats. Surely the gravedigger her parents recently hired must be a spy. Hazel shanghais strange new boy Samuel into helping her gather evidence, but Samuel’s life holds mysteries too—and sadness. For a smart, probing kid, Hazel’s an interesting and believable mix of persistence and naïveté. Some schoolmates have “a dark, solid center that ma[kes] them mean” and some adults “[r]umor, whisper [and] lie,” but funny, relentless Hazel does what’s necessary until things come clear for her, her people and her town—with some emotional insight gained.
Hazel’s inquisitiveness, independence and imperfections are a winning combination. (author’s note) (Historical mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-348-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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