Here's a quirky and implausible story about sixth-grader Augie Knapp, who was born with a deformed left hand. For as long as he can remember, Augie, who lives with his single mom and her brother in a blue-collar small town in Pennsylvania, has hidden his stump in a homemade prosthesis, a glove that holds wire shapes and cotton balls to fill out the fingers. While Augie can't participate in some activities, he is generally accepted by his peers and has some close friends. Into this scene enters decidedly strange Lydie Rose Meisenheimer—a sixth-grader driving her own convertible yet—who takes an immediate shine to Augie. For reasons that the author doesn't convincingly explain, she seems to see right through Augie the moment she meets him; overwhelms him with squirmingly embarrassing attention; gets him out of a jam when he doesn't turn in a homework assignment; and repeatedly exhorts him to wait till "the Gypsies come" because they will appreciate his hand. The author doesn't make it clear just who these "Gypsies" are or whether Lydie is one herself. Over time Augie starts thinking more and more about them and hoping that they—and the father he never knew—will show up. He also gradually warms up to Lydie and accepts his handicap when she leaves town in a too-pat ending. Perhaps the Gypsies have been inside Augie all along and Lydie just helped his self-acceptance emerge. Readers will appreciate the humor here; they'll like Augie and will wonder whether the Gypsies will, in fact, ever show and what will happen then. But they are bound to be perplexed, too. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83147-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Themes of freedom and responsibility twine between the lines of this short but heavy novel from the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (2000). Three months after his mother's death, Rob and his father are living in a small-town Florida motel, each nursing sharp, private pain. On the same day Rob has two astonishing encounters: first, he stumbles upon a caged tiger in the woods behind the motel; then he meets Sistine, a new classmate responding to her parents' breakup with ready fists and a big chip on her shoulder. About to burst with his secret, Rob confides in Sistine, who instantly declares that the tiger must be freed. As Rob quickly develops a yen for Sistine's company that gives her plenty of emotional leverage, and the keys to the cage almost literally drop into his hands, credible plotting plainly takes a back seat to character delineation here. And both struggle for visibility beneath a wagonload of symbol and metaphor: the real tiger (and the inevitable recitation of Blake's poem); the cage; Rob's dream of Sistine riding away on the beast's back; a mysterious skin condition on Rob's legs that develops after his mother's death; a series of wooden figurines that he whittles; a larger-than-life African-American housekeeper at the motel who dispenses wisdom with nearly every utterance; and the climax itself, which is signaled from the start. It's all so freighted with layers of significance that, like Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue (2000), Anne Mazer's Oxboy (1995), or, further back, Julia Cunningham's Dorp Dead (1965), it becomes more an exercise in analysis than a living, breathing story. Still, the tiger, "burning bright" with magnificent, feral presence, does make an arresting central image. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-0911-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
BOOK TO SCREEN
Fans of Cameron’s Huey and Julian stories (More Stories Huey Tells, 1997, etc.) are in for a treat as Gloria, their friend from those tales, gets a book of her own and graciously allows the two brothers to share it . In the first tale, Gloria makes a wonderful card for her mother, but the wind blows it away and it ends up in the cage of a cantankerous parrot. Thanks to Mr. Bates, Huey and Julian’s dad, the day is saved, as is the burgeoning friendship that Gloria and the boys have struck up with new neighbor Latisha in the story, “The Promise.” In another story, Gloria has to deal with a huge problem—fractions—and this time it’s her dad who helps her through it. Mr. Bates proves helpful again when the group trains an “obsessed” puppy, while Gloria’s mother is supportive when Gloria is unintentionally hurt by her three best friends. The stories are warm and funny, as Gloria, a spunky kid who gets into some strange predicaments, finds out that her friends and wise, loving adults are good to have around when trouble beckons. Great fun, with subtly placed, positive messages that never take center stage. (b&w illustrations) (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: March 9, 2000
ISBN: 0-374-32670-3
Page Count: 93
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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