A fast-paced verse novel chronicles a suburban teen’s nightmare: losing her most comfortable, well-appointed lifestyle to a bare bones existence in the city. Vicki Marnet’s 56-year-old father is laid off after 28 years in corporate America. Two years later, he still hasn’t found work and Vicki’s mother decides to sell off everything, get a job and move the family to an apartment in the city. After a brief stint of menial jobs, Vicki’s dad becomes so depressed, he leaves. While he’s gone, Vicki’s mom invites a co-worker to live in their already small apartment, kicking Vicki (but not her two brothers) out of the already tiny space she inhabits, which encourages Vicki’s final misjudgment. Throughout, Vicki relates every detail of her loss and difficult adjustment through a variety of poems, journals and e-mails. Adolescent readers might appreciate Mazer’s ear for teen language but they may balk at the persistently negative perspective through which Vicki views her life and the choices she makes. While Mazur is particularly effective in relating Vicki’s story through poetic forms such as pantoun and sestina, her character is too self-critical, has limited perspective and little depth. Mazur’s problem verse-novel becomes unexpectedly uncomfortable and one may wonder if the payoff comes to Vicki and her readers at too high a price. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-15-201462-4
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s 1949, and 13-year-old Francine Green lives in “the land of ‘Sit down, Francine’ and ‘Be quiet, Francine’ ” at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles. When she meets Sophie Bowman and her father, she’s encouraged to think about issues in the news: the atomic bomb, peace, communism and blacklisting. This is not a story about the McCarthy era so much as one about how one girl—who has been trained to be quiet and obedient by her school, family, church and culture—learns to speak up for herself. Cushman offers a fine sense of the times with such cultural references as President Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, Montgomery Clift, Lucky Strike, “duck and cover” and the Iron Curtain. The dialogue is sharp, carrying a good part of this story of friends and foes, guilt and courage—a story that ought to send readers off to find out more about McCarthy, his witch-hunt and the First Amendment. Though not a happily-ever-after tale, it dramatizes how one person can stand up to unfairness, be it in front of Senate hearings or in the classroom. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-50455-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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