Over-the-top but ultimately wise
Hyperbole reigns supreme!
Indian-American Winnie’s been suffering mightily since her parents’ divorce. Neither one will give an inch, so Winnie’s days are precisely divided between the warring, very peculiar adults, with the leftover day, Wednesday, spent in her magnificent treehouse. In trying to outdo each other by overcelebrating every conceivable holiday, Winnie’s parents consume all of their daughter’s time. She’s now in grave danger of failing fifth grade. In desperation, she retreats to her treehouse, refusing to come down. Her nine school friends, depicted on the cover as being of varying races, unexpectedly join her there, each with a (trivial) gripe with parents, their strike resulting in instant fame. Due to a legal technicality, the kids can stay, but that doesn’t keep the powerless adults from torturing them with loud music and bright spotlights. The third-person tale is presented from Winnie’s perspective, interspersed with recipes, instructions for crafts, and, primarily, her friends’ Post-it comments. By the 14th day, Winnie’s sleep-deprived friends are splintering apart just like her parents did. With guidance from an insightful uncle she finds her voice and helps them all go home, fulfilling not their demands but what each one really needed. Her wayward parents remain unreachable though—until she realizes that she has to apply her determined persistence and dynamic, assertive voice with them too.
Over-the-top but ultimately wise . (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: May 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-17500-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
SEEN & HEARD
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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