Reviews

Kirkus Reviews for Eileen Makoff's Selections Note: Because Kirkus' page is password-protected, I've copied and pasted straight into the wiki instead of linking to the Kirkus site. I've been unable to find hard copies of Kirkus from 2003, so I've included only the electronic versions of the reviews. EM

//True Confessions of a Heartless Girl// //Kirkus Reviews//, Reviewed February 15, 2003, Published March 11, 2003, **Starred** Set during ten days in July, this beautifully written story explores the effect of a stranger on a small town. When 17-year-old Noreen steals her boyfriend’s money and car, she ends up in Pembina Lake, Manitoba, stranded by a storm. Lynda, a café owner, takes Noreen in for the night, even though she senses the girl is trouble. An older neighbor, Dolores, elicits Noreen’s life story: a mother who drinks, a physically abusive stepfather, a loving older stepsister exasperated by Noreen’s selfishness, and Wesley, the kind boyfriend she’s deserted. But the “true confessions” are only one part of a narrative that excels at creating palpably real characters. No matter their age, from Lynda’s young son to a sad middle-aged farmer to Dolores’s aging friend Mary, they are utterly human, often edgy and annoying, but ultimately good. Their relationships, conveyed in convincing dialogue, inevitably entail friction as well as growth as each struggles with his or her own concerns. Introducing Noreen into the mix of familiar neighbors changes everyone, if only a little, as they respond to her fear that she can’t love or be loved, and her longing for both. Brooks (Being with Henry, 2000, etc.) has a masterful hand at description, drawing a vivid picture of the town, its lake, and the prairie around it. She seems to know the place and people intimately and, through them, she shares her vision of the richness of ordinary life in all its pain and glory. (Fiction. YA)

//Mortal Engines// //Kirkus Reviews//, Reviewed October 15, 2003, Published November 1, 2003

Reeve thinks big in this British prizewinner, envisioning a distant future in which immense mobile cities roar over continent-sized wastelands, preying on each other. Thanks to ruthless scavenger Thaddeus Valentine, London has acquired an ancient energy weapon powerful enough to overwhelm the well-defended but stationary cities of former Asia. To lowly apprentice Historian Tom Natsworthy, Valentine is a hero; Tom begins to find out differently after meeting Hester Shaw, a savagely mutilated young woman who saw Valentine murder her parents for the device. Ejected from the city as it barrels eastward, Tom and Hester encounter pirates and unexpected allies, battle an ancient cyborg warrior, and get an eye-opening look at their diverse world as they struggle to catch up. Running up the body count to staggering dimensions, the author propels his protagonists to a cataclysmic climax, folding in both instances of casual, inhuman brutality and satiric comments about “urban Darwinism.” With the exception of that cyborg, the characters and societies are as uncomplicated here as the moral issues; readers who enjoy violent, titanic clashes between good and evil will be absorbed from beginning to end. First of a projected trilogy.(Fiction. 12-15)

//Fat Kid Rules the World// //Kirkus Reviews//, Reviewed May 1, 2003, Published May 1, 2003 Curt MacCrae, a semi-homeless, blond ferret of a boy and guitar genius, saves big Troy Billings from leaping to a splattering demise in front of the F train. The two boys form an unlikely friendship, each offering what the other needs and, ultimately, saving each other’s life. Curt recruits Troy to be the drummer in his band, Rage/Tectonic, and the story gathers momentum as the first gig approaches. The problem is that Troy isn’t much of a drummer. It takes lessons from a scarecrow of a guy with a purple Mohawk to get his skills in shape, thus adding another larger-than-life character to the assemblage. Just as Curt saved Troy’s life, Troy must find a way to help Curt, who is sick, addicted, and malnourished. Newcomer Going’s descriptive writing sometimes goes over the top, but it’s also what makes this offering come alive from the very first page. The strong language and themes make this a raw, yet immensely likable tale for older teens. (Fiction. YA)

//The First Part Last// //Kirkus Reviews,// Reviewed June 1, 2003, Published June 1, 2003 “The rules: If she hollers, she is mine. If she needs to be changed, she is always mine. In the dictionary next to ‘sitter,’ there is not a picture of Grandma. It’s time to grow up. Too late, you’re out of time. Be a grown-up.” Sixteen-year-old Bobby has met the love of his life: his daughter. Told in alternating chapters that take place “then” and “now,” Bobby relates the hour-by-hour tribulations and joys of caring for a newborn, and the circumstances that got him there. Managing to cope with support, but little help, from his single mother (who wants to make sure he does this on his own), Bobby struggles to maintain friendships and a school career while giving his daughter the love and care she craves from him at every moment. By narrating from a realistic first-person voice, Johnson manages to convey a story that is always complex, never preachy. The somewhat pat ending doesn’t diminish the impact of this short, involving story. It’s the tale of one young man and his choices, which many young readers will appreciate and enjoy. (Fiction. YA)

//Milkweed// //Kirkus Reviews,// Reviewed August 1, 2003, Published September 9, 2003 Starred When the reader first meets the narrator of this tale, he knows himself only as “Stopthief.” He is a Warsaw street orphan, without morals, without culture, without community—until Uri takes him in to join his pack of fellow orphans, all Jews. Life is good for the newly renamed Misha, until the Jackboots arrive and force him and his fellow orphans into the ghetto, where life becomes increasingly more desperate and community—both that of the orphans and of Janina, a little girl whose family he adopts—increasingly necessary. Spinelli’s choice of narrator is a masterstroke. Because Misha has no sense of anything except his own immediate needs and desires, he has no urge to explain the bizarre and fundamentally irrational events that befall him. He simply reports graphically, almost clinically, on the slow devastation of the Jews of Warsaw and on the changes in his own relationships, to friends and world, brought about by the experience. His own psychological and social growth is almost lost on the reader until a coda, that still makes no attempt to explain, finally finds him at peace. Stunning. (Fiction. 9-14)

//Getting Away with Murder// //Kirkus Reviews,// Reviewed May 15, 2003, Published May 1, 2003 An awkward and problematic beginning gives way to a provocative, if occasionally histrionic, account of the 1955 trial of the murderers of Emmett Till, one of the flashpoint moments in the early civil-rights movement. Crowe, whose Mississippi Trial, 1955 (2002) covered in fictional form much of this same territory, has a difficult time initially with this straight historical account. An imagined “recreation” of Till’s abduction threatens to hamstring the effort before it even gets started. This gives way to a repetitious, poorly edited, and poorly organized description of the state of racial affairs at the time. Once the narrative moves on to the trial, however, the natural drama of the courtroom takes over, and for the most part readers will be drawn in as thoroughly as contemporary Americans were. Neither the contextual citation of primary-source material nor the unannotated bibliography will easily enable readers to source that material; a list of suggested further reading might, however, spark additional research. This work, despite its flaws, does bring to a child audience one of the most egregious instances of American injustice, and thus merits consideration. (Nonfiction. 12+)

//The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things// //Kirkus Reviews,// Reviewed June 15, 2003, Published August 1, 2003 “Froggy Welsh the Fourth is trying to get up my shirt,” begins this eminently accessible journey from self-hatred to confidence. Virginia is 15 and likes fooling around with Froggy, but she’s mortified by her fatness, a shame fueled continually by her emotionally distant and pressuring family. Has she been switched at birth? Why isn’t she perfect like her adored, overachieving older brother? But her brother isn’t perfect after all, and he commits a horrifying act that rocks her world—and prompts her to begin questioning her family’s values. Readers will be rooting for Virginia all the way as she moves from isolated TV-watcher to Website-creator with purple hair and an eyebrow ring. Sexuality, refreshingly, is treated as a good thing. Virginia’s emotions progress from despondence to anger, joy, and strong independence, all portrayed with clarity. An easy read with substance and spirit. (Fiction. YA)

