In a crackerjack first novel written with the verve of Margaret Mahy at her most sportive, Ivy Greene finds herself inexplicably abandoned by her normally conscientious parents. While searching for them she encounters numerous weird characters such as the vile Borage Clott, who runs the Wretched Dear Darlings' Blessed Haven Orphanage (the ``gray and lumpish'' Borage smells of toads and moldy cheese, possibly because he gnaws on his own bare feet). Ivy has never been a stranger to odd people. Her aunt Zilpa, who helps figure out what's become of her parents, is a taxidermist who believes that ice cream is a complete and perfect food and keeps a 300-pound ostrich that makes a fetish of putting round things in holes (a result of being yanked unhatched from his nest). It turns out that Ivy's folks had their common sense sucked out while standing in their own back yard on a night of total darkness—they're literally dumbstruck. Fortunately, Ivy and Zilpa are able to restore their intelligence. Highly original fun spiced with hilarious descriptions of the daft goings-on; a great readaloud. With suitably zany illustrations. (Fiction. 8+)
Pub Date: April 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-8234-1123-0
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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Like the quiet lap of waves on the sand, the alternating introspections of two Bahamian island children in 1492. Morning Girl and her brother Star Boy are very different: she loves the hush of pre-dawn while he revels in night skies, noise, wind. In many ways they are antagonists, each too young and subjective to understand the other's perspective—in contrast to their mother's appreciation for her brother. In the course of these taut chapters concerning such pivotal events as their mother's losing a child, the arrival of a hurricane, or Star Boy's earning the right to his adult name, they grow closer. In the last, Morning Girl greets— with cordial innocence—a boat full of visitors, unaware that her beautifully balanced and textured life is about to be catalogued as ``very poor in everything,'' her island conquered by Europeans. This paradise is so intensely and believably imagined that the epilogue, quoted from Columbus's diary, sickens with its ominous significance. Subtly, Dorris draws parallels between the timeless chafings of sibs set on changing each other's temperaments and the intrusions of states questing new territory. Saddening, compelling—a novel to be cherished for its compassion and humanity. (Fiction. 8+)
Pub Date: Sept. 14, 1992
ISBN: 1-56282-284-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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Renowned Latin American writer Alvarez has created another story about cultural identity, but this time the primary character is 11-year-old Miguel Guzmán.
When Tía Lola arrives to help the family, Miguel and his hermana, Juanita, have just moved from New York City to Vermont with their recently divorced mother. The last thing Miguel wants, as he's trying to fit into a predominantly white community, is a flamboyant aunt who doesn't speak a word of English. Tía Lola, however, knows a language that defies words; she quickly charms and befriends all the neighbors. She can also cook exotic food, dance (anywhere, anytime), plan fun parties, and tell enchanting stories. Eventually, Tía Lola and the children swap English and Spanish ejercicios, but the true lesson is "mutual understanding." Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Alvarez makes the reader as much a part of the "language" lessons as the characters. This story seamlessly weaves two culturaswhile letting each remain intact, just as Miguel is learning to do with his own life. Like all good stories, this one incorporates a lesson just subtle enough that readers will forget they're being taught, but in the end will understand themselves, and others, a little better, regardless of la lengua nativa—the mother tongue.
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80215-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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