A pleasant, if somewhat derivative, time-travel adventure for early readers.
Twins travel back to Coney Island in 1928 in this chapter book and series opener.
Nine-year-old twins Emma and Simon are excited about their sleepover at their grandmother’s New York City apartment. They request her help with a school project about their family history. She tells them the story of how her parents met on a trolley returning from Coney Island, when Jessie threw peanut shells on Jack’s lap to get him to notice her. To illuminate the tale, she shows the twins a snow globe depicting the Cyclone roller coaster on Coney Island. Watching the snow swirl, Emma and Simon are transported back to June 1928, shortly after the opening of the Cyclone. They immediately see three young women who appear to be Jessie and her two sisters. The twins follow them, quickly determining that they are indeed the children’s great-grandmother and great-great aunts. Curious to witness the meeting of Jack and Jessie on the trolley, Simon and Emma quickly realize that their intervention is essential to guarantee the encounter. Once they ensure their great-grandparents’ meeting takes place as their grandmother described, the two return to her apartment and their next adventure is suggested. Although the concept is strongly reminiscent of Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House series, the use of a snow globe as the magical feature is singular and the plot is far simpler in this tale, aimed at readers ages 6 to 9. Educator and attorney Stoller (co-author: The Parent-Child Book Club, 2009) does not use the time-travel aspect to impart historical information. The characters and setting are the heart of the enjoyable story. Metler-Smith’s (Swensons, Penick, and the TCR, 2016) black-and-white images are attractive, although the lack of color is puzzling. (Neither the narrative nor illustrations address diversity.) The book includes discussion questions, a recipe for apple crisp (integral to the story), and a craft project, all of which enhance the tale. There is also a photograph of the real-life Jessie and Jack, on whom the book is based.
A pleasant, if somewhat derivative, time-travel adventure for early readers.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-946101-23-5
Page Count: 102
Publisher: Spork
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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