Shange’s second effort for children deals with longing, memory, and ambition; unfortunately, the quality of writing is not up to the expected brilliance of the author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Lucie-Marie, 12, and Annie Sharon, 14, live on a ranch in East Texas with their father, Tie-Down, a rancher and rodeo rider; their mother, also a rodeo rider, was killed in a rodeo accident long ago but is still sorely missed. As Tie-Down begins to spend time with a new girlfriend, the girls become jealous for their father’s attention—on their own behalf and in defense of their mother’s memory. Both girls are skilled riders, but Annie Sharon pushes the limits of safety—to connect with and emulate her mother, to get her father’s attention, and for love of the sport. However, many of the big emotional issues are confusing: for example, does Tie-Down ignore the girls only now that he has a new girlfriend, or has he always been distant? The answer is inconsistent, which detracts from the potential emotional realism and understandable pain of either scenario. A constantly shifting narrative viewpoint dilutes individual depth and richness of character and the writing as a whole is stiff and awkward. While this could be enjoyed by rodeo and horse fans—roping, bronco busting, and barrel racing are described in detail—and fills a niche by portraying African-American girls in a western context, actively riding rodeo, as literature, it fails to score. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-83081-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2002
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read.
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers.
Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler’s father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari’s family. As Tyler and Mari’s friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez’s novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what’s illegal and what’s wrong. Mari’s experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities.
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85838-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008
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