The author of A Tree Still Stands: Jewish Youth in Eastern Europe Today (1990) considers the Rom (gypsies) in similar format: their past, present status, and the lingering scars of the Holocaust (hundreds of thousands lost their lives to the Nazis); abundant candid photos, both b&w and in color; and extensive quotes from Rom of all ages in four countries: Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Sweden. Meanwhile, in sidebars of smaller type, Strom describes his encounters with Rom who generously took him in, confided their aspirations and troubles, and shared meals and music (Strom, who's also a musician, travels with a violin). A suspect, outcast people for all of their hundreds of years in Europe, the Rom are (at the moment) most numerous in Romania, best treated in Sweden. The very strategies helping them survive persecution have often fed prejudices against them. Skillfully, Strom presents the rich diversity of their culture in their own thoughtful words (apparently he's multilingual, as are many of them; it would have been interesting to know in what languages his interviews were conducted); his portraits—in words and telling photos—are especially notable for the immediacy with which they portray the gypsies' individuality, warmth, and courage. Maps; six songs, with music; bibliography; index. (Nonfiction. 10+)
Pub Date: Dec. 31, 1993
ISBN: 0-02-788531-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Four Winds/MacMillan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
This profoundly moving story is all the more impressive because of its basis in fact. Although the story is fictionalized, its most harrowing aspects are true: “Today, more than two hundred million children between the ages of five and seventeen are ‘economically active’ in the world.” Iqbal Masih, a real boy, was murdered at age 13. His killers have never been found, but it’s believed that a cartel of ruthless people overseeing the carpet industry, the “Carpet Mafia,” killed him. The carpet business in Pakistan is the backdrop for the story of a young Pakistani girl in indentured servitude to a factory owner, who also “owned” the bonds of 14 children, indentured by their own families for sorely needed money. Fatima’s first-person narrative grips from the beginning and inspires with every increment of pride and resistance the defiant Iqbal instills in his fellow workers. Although he was murdered for his efforts, Iqbal’s life was not in vain; the accounts here of children who were liberated through his and activist adults’ efforts will move readers for years to come. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85445-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
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