A sad and unfortunate situation of child abandonment and abuse is turned around in a consuming story that offers realism, hope, and psychological fortitude. Ten-year-old Willow Wind Jones and her four-year-old half-brother, Twig, have been left, as before, by their drug-addicted mother with an older, sick woman in a welfare hotel. Three months have gone by with no sign of their mother, Angel, and when the old woman collapses, probably dying, Willow assesses their circumstances and makes the difficult decision to seek help from the local police station. Social services intervenes and the children are returned to the supportive home of their grandmother who quickly begins the difficult process of establishing a trusting, protective, and loving environment. Little (Emma’s Yucky Brother, 2001, etc.) has skillfully developed the characters of the two children through Willow’s mental anguish as she has silently struggled alone for the last several years with her fears and bore the responsibility of serving as surrogate mother, teacher, and even stable adult to her physically and psychologically scarred brother. Twig’s physical abuse has resulted in his deafness and slow developmental progress, making him appear to be wild and uncontrollable in times of duress. Grandmother begins the legal process for guardianship and Angel eventually calls to make empty promises to the children, once again. Little has set the major portion of the story in a similar home life to her farmstead in Ontario, complete with animals and a blind uncle who is also a children’s author. Emotionally absorbing, with a somewhat convenient ending, but satisfying all the same. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-670-88856-7
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
“Hear, and listen well, my friends, and I will tell you a tale that has been told for a thousand years and more.” It’s not exactly a rarely told tale, either, though this complete rendition is distinguished by both handsome packaging and a prose narrative that artfully mixes alliterative language reminiscent of the original, with currently topical references to, for instance, Grendel’s “endless terror raids,” and the “holocaust at Heorot.” Along with being printed on heavy stock and surrounded by braided borders, the text is paired to colorful scenes featuring a small human warrior squaring off with a succession of grimacing but not very frightening monsters in battles marked by but a few discreet splashes of blood. Morpurgo puts his finger on the story’s enduring appeal—“we still fear the evil that stalks out there in the darkness . . . ”—but offers a version unlikely to trouble the sleep of more sensitive readers or listeners. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7636-3206-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
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