At the end of this well-crafted novella, when 13-year-old Polly and her mother finally share a companionable meal and level with each other, Polly compares the game in Ellis's title with her new insight into their relationship: ``You pull out one stick and the balance shifts and the whole pattern changes.'' Mum has just confided that, even before Polly was conceived, she understood that she didn't want to be married but she did want to bear and raise a child; and though the story has turned on their temporary estrangement, it's clear that the two constitute a richly individual family strengthened by their mutual regard. The rift is precipitated by their eviction from their low- rent home. Anxious and exasperated by Mum's sporadic attempts to find a new place, Polly opts to stay with Mum's brother and his family while Mum moves into the studio where she supports them by making stained glass. Affluent Uncle Roger provides his family with plenty of material things, but at his house there's none of the warm interaction that has nurtured Polly; a terrifying outing with her teenage cousin, which turns out to be a shoplifting and vandalism spree, quickly sends Polly back to a reconciliation with her mother. Crass Uncle Roger and his self-indulgent wife and daughter are one-dimensional foils for Polly, but other characters— including a sweet, retarded adult friend—are the kind of unique, well-rounded personalities readers expect from this fine Canadian author (A Family Project, 1988). A memorable portrait of a mother and daughter maturing and growing closer as the result of a challenging experience. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: March 31, 1992
ISBN: 0-689-50550-7
Page Count: 124
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1992
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A legally blind seventh-grader with clearer vision than most wins acceptance in a new Florida school as his football-hero older brother self-destructs in this absorbing, multi-stranded debut. Paul's thick lenses don't keep him from being a first-rate soccer goalie, but they do make him, willy-nilly, a "handicapped" student and thus, according to his new coach, ineligible to play. After a giant sinkhole swallows much of his ramshackle school, Paul is able to transfer to another school where, with some parental collusion, he can keep his legal status a secret. It turns out to be a rough place, where "minorities are in the majority," but Paul fits himself in, playing on the superb soccer team (as a substitute for one of the female stars of the group) and pitching in when a freeze threatens the citrus groves. Bloor fills in the setting with authority and broad irony: In Tangerine County, Florida, groves are being replaced by poorly designed housing developments through which drift clouds of mosquitoes and smoke from unquenchable "muck fires." Football is so big that not even the death of a player struck by lightning during practice gets in the way of NFL dreams; no one, including Paul's parents, sees how vicious and amoral his brother, Erik, is off the field. Smart, adaptable, and anchored by a strong sense of self-worth, Paul makes a memorable protagonist in a cast of vividly drawn characters; multiple yet taut plotlines lead to a series of gripping climaxes and revelations. Readers are going to want more from this author. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-201246-X
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1997
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