An oblique look at war as seen by a seventh-grader who, unlike her Civil War-buff parents, comes to understand that its evils are real. At a reenactment the three attend, Abby plays the part of 40-year-old Eliza Hoskins, ``the Angel of Camp Robinson.'' To imagine herself into the role, Abby begins a diary in nurse Eliza's voice. But the determined Eliza's own words, reporting her desperate need for supplies, appear in Abby's hand- -and this unsettling phenomenon persists back at home. Abby and friend Harper (posing as girl scouts collecting for hurricane relief) collect money for blankets and bandages, which Abby then buses to the Kentucky homestead where she first encountered Eliza. Lyon (Mama is a Miner, p. 1133, etc.; Five Live Bongos, see above) extends ideas she's explored in previous books. As Abby's Dad proclaims, ``History is not part of anything. Everything is part of history.'' Abby's vivid experience of Eliza is evanescent and multilayered—she knows Eliza's voice, glimpses her, discusses her with a soldier she later learns died in 1905, and even sometimes becomes Eliza—yet all that she learns is hardly more than she gleans from the meager historical record, enhanced by her own empathy. Lyrical and beautifully crafted. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-531-06866-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
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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