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Summary
Summary
Mia Veery wants her family to behave like the families she reads about. They would never include a mother who flies airplanes and trades one husband for another. Or older sisters who dress all in black and read French novels. Or a father who moves his family from Ohio to live in Lebanon, where even the tangy air tastes foreign.
Every day in Beirut, Mia wishes she could live the way kids are living in America in 1962, eating hot dogs, drinking real milk, maybe watching Bonanza on TV. Then her wish comes true, but in a way she'd never intended.
Mia is sent back to the United States, to Tennessee, to stay with an aunt she's never met. During a summer spent longing for her parents and trying to find her place in her new surroundings, Mia figures out a few truths about families and all that they can and cannot be.
Mia Veery is fierce, funny, and finally, indomitable. Her story marks the extraordinary debut of a talented writer.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-Living in Beirut in 1962, 11-year-old Mia longs to live the life of a normal American girl, enjoying summer camp, watching television, and drinking milk. When her professor father and free-spirited mother vanish during a sea cruise, Mia finds herself in Ionia, Tennessee, cared for by her Aunt Kit. Although grieving for her parents and ignored by her two half sisters, Mia is at first eager to embrace the life she had only dreamed of. After accidentally breaking both her aunt's arms, Mia is enrolled at vacation Bible school, where she does not quite fit in. The summer is filled with sometimes comical, sometimes poignant incidents that are the result of Mia's misguided yet usually good intentions. Mia and those around her change and mature during the course of the summer. First time novelist Suzanne Freeman (Greenwillow, 1996) brilliantly captures the delicate blend of naivete, angst, and confusion of a preteen and credibly recreates the mood of a small Southern town. Students will recognize a kindred spirit in Mia. The narrator, 13-year-old Christy Carlson Romano, adds an enchanting touch by handling the various characters with expertise and maturity not often heard in even adult readers. A remarkably well-told story.-Susan McCaffrey, Sturgis Middle School, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
First-time novelist Freeman conveys the essence of estrangement in a unique coming-of-age story, at once profound and darkly humorous. The youngest member of a studiedly individualist American family living in Beirut during the early '60s, Mia longs to be a "normal" American girl, but her chance to make this dream come true arrives via tragedy. Only after her parents are lost at sea and her "beatnik" older half-sisters are sent off for a lengthy visit with their real father does Mia find herself being reshaped as an "ordinary kid" by her Aunt Kit in Ionia, Tenn. Although Mia quickly learns how to blend in with the popular girls at the local Vacation Bible School, she continues to be haunted by her memories. It takes much soul-searching for her to realize that the things that made her different are the same things that made her truly happy. A number of the minor characters are somewhat stereotyped, but Mia's psyche is painstakingly developed and she emerges as a highly complex character, very much an original. Readers will become absorbed in Mia's battle to overcome grief and guilt, and will identify with the growing pains she suffers and the social blunders she commits. Sure to make a lasting impression. Ages 10-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Like a rip-roaring rollercoaster ride, this picaresque adventure careens from one escapade to another, ending at a precipitous pause. The action begins in Ireland during the disastrous potato famine as hirelings of Lord Kirkle, a rackrent landlord, destroy the wretched cottages of a small village. Among his victims are Maura and Patrick O'Connell, who, with their mother, have been sent sufficient funds to join their father in America. No stalwart example of Irish womanhood, the mother succumbs to despair, leaving her two children to pursue their quest alone. In Liverpool, where ships embark for the journey west, their paths intersect with that of Laurence Kirkle, younger son of the landowner who had evicted them. He, thanks to the machinations of a conniving older brother, has run away from his London home to seek asylum, like the O'Connells, in the land of opportunity. Similar to many stories in this genre, the emphasis is on plot and action with references to historical events setting it in time and place. Shifting back and forth between converging stories, the narrative, with its short, snappy chapters and unremitting suspense, is a real page turner. Personalities representing all tones from virtue to villainy add color and intrigue. The characters, types rather than unique, include a spinoff of Dickens's Fagin, an unemployed actor, and a conniving proprietess of a derelict boarding house. Maura and Patrick, particularly in their dialogue, come perilously close to stage-Irish stock, but the audacious use of coincidence and dazzling pace disguises these shortcomings. Warning: The ending leaves one of the main characters "in dire straits," as the old-fashioned melodramas used to say, insuring that readers will be eagerly awaiting the promised sequel. m.m.b. Betsy Duffey Hey, New Kid! As she has done so successfully with her previous novels, including How to Be Cool in the Third Grade (Viking), Duffey again explores the everyday angsts of young elementary school children. On his first day in a new school, third-grader Cody blurts out lies about himself and his family in order to sound like a more exciting kid than he is. Trapped by his lies, he is afraid to invite anyone over to play for fear they will discover that his mother does not drive a Jaguar and that he does not have a pet emu. In a climactic scene at the skating rink, Cody demonstrates that he is not the championship skater he has claimed to be and ends up sprawled on the floor of the girls' bathroom. Cody admits that he lied and discovers that he can make friends as himself - the "plain old new kid." The emotions ring true, the storytelling is fast-paced and very funny, and the situation is eminently recognizable. Duffey has a gift for conveying the vulnerabilities of her characters, and Cody is all the more likable for his foibles. The book's open format, with plenty of white space, large type, and a smattering of illustrations, helps to make this accessible, realistic story one which young readers will pick up and enjoy. m.v.k. Anne Fine Step by Wicked Step Anne Fine, known for her witty, clear-eyed, and often acerbic take on contemporary families, will not disappoint her readers with her new novel about the many different pressures faced by children in stepfamilies. Five children spending the night in an old mansion as part of a class trip discover a journal written generations earlier by a boy their age. The children read the diary and learn that Richard left home because he could not live with his new stepfather, and that his leaving caused great damage. After listening to Richard's story, each of the five tells his or her own. Their stories are powerful and intensely moving tales of children struggling with change and shifting family conditions. Ralph, for example, cannot keep track of which parent's house he should go to after school each day, so his parents develop a lunchbox system: the Dumbo lunchbox means Dad's house after school; the Mickey Mouse one directs him to his mother's. Colin's mother leaves the only father Colin has known, a man she lived with for many years, and in her attempt to create a new life for herself does not see that Colin has been torn from a man he loves. Each of their stories is different, but through the act of telling, and through the responses of the other children, each one learns more about his or her own life. The plot device of Richard and his journal seems an artificial construct, a dispensable frame for the contemporary narratives, but those stories are wise and powerful, together comprising an affecting and honest novel. m.v.k. H Suzanne Freeman The Cuckoo's Child In an astonishing first novel, Freeman tells the story of Mia, who has grown up in Beirut longing for all that she is missing back in the United States. The novel opens with a compelling first sentence - "The week after my parents vanished I tried to climb the water tower in Ionia, Tennessee" - and the reader finds that Mia has returned to America, not under the circumstances she hoped for but to await news of her parents, who appear to be lost at sea. Mia struggles to fit into her new world of Vacation Bible School and children who have known each other all their lives. But like the misprinted paper dolls Mia plays with and tries to fix, she is more different than she is willing to accept. Her mother has always chosen to be eccentric, but Mia longs to be normal. Through the summer she develops elaborate rituals she is convinced she must carry out until her mother and father return. She fights to find her place while keeping herself separate enough that she can cling to the hope that everything will change again. When the novel closes, Mia accepts that she has truly been deserted by her parents, but whether by choice or fate she will never know. Mia is a memorable, fully developed character, and the other characters are equally strong and vivid. Her teenage half-sisters bandy about French phrases and dress completely in black to remind the townspeople, and themselves, that they are cosmopolitan. Mia's aunt Kit cleans up the messes her inconsiderate sister leaves behind - and this time the mess is Mia. Freeman's writing is careful and clear, her uncluttered style balancing the confusion and dramatic upheavals of Mia's emotions. This is a novel about strong feelings and despair in which a child realistically comes to a new understanding of family and self. m.v.k. Rodman Philbrick The Fire Pony Here's some of what happens in this book: Roy, an orphan, having come to work with his older half-brother on a horse ranch, breaks in a wild pony and gets to keep her; nurses her successfully through a life-threatening fever; wins, against all odds, the big race at the rodeo; is rescued from a raging brushfire by his adoring brother; and eventually is adopted by the benevolent ranch owner who lost his own son in an accident years before. More clichés than you can count - but Philbrick transforms them into a riveting page-turner with a dark side. Roy and his brother, Joe Dilly, have come to the Bar None Ranch ("Everybody Welcome") after years on the run, ever since Joe snatched Roy away from an abusive foster home; and though devoted to Roy, Joe is unbalanced - a dangerous personality, a compulsive pyromaniac. Roy is always on edge, constantly checking Joe's reactions and moods for the first sign that he has taken a misstep or that it is time to pack up and move on. The stomach-clenching tension builds to a climax that is, literally, combustible. Philbrick's creation, through a first-person narration, of the scarred but spirited Roy is near-flawless, and his most successful characterization is the most difficult: Joe Dilly is loving and funny and talented even as he is scary and unpredictable and disturbed. The climactic fire scene teeters toward melodrama, but that's a small quibble in a book that offers such a rousing story. m.v.p. H Philip Pullman The Golden Compass An extraordinary, compelling fantasy, the first volume of a projected trilogy, is set in an alternate world, parallel to our own earth, but differing in many details. The most fascinating is the existence of dæmons, an integral part of every human being, much like a soul, but taking the form of an animal. Human and dæmon are tied by an emotional bond that cannot be broken without indescribable suffering or, more probably, death. The technology of this world is similar to that of our own of perhaps a century ago, with such things as anbaric light rather than electric, and balloons and zeppelins rather than airplanes. Our heroine is orphaned Lyra Belacqua, who lives with her dæmon, Pantalaimon, at Jordan College in Oxford, under the care of the Master. She is an unusual child: rough, inquisitive, wiry, a born leader, an accomplished liar, almost fearless. Soon after children begin disappearing all over the country and Lyra's guardian, Lord Asriel, is captured and imprisoned during an expedition to the Arctic, she is taken from the college by the beautiful, fascinating Mrs. Coulter. The Master of Jordan College has secretly given Lyra a rare and unusual instrument, the alethiometer, which looks like a compass and can be used to answer questions of every sort, even about the future. Her old friends the gyptians, who live in canal boats, rescue her, and mount an expedition to Lapland to locate the missing children. On the way Lyra encounters and helps to free Iorek Byrnison, a sentient armored bear, who becomes her most powerful defender. Lyra finds the missing children in a scientific experimental station, where they are being subjected to the hideous operation of intercision, which separates them from their dæmons. The reasons for this butchery are only part of the extremely complex plot, in which the unknowing Lyra is deeply involved. The characters of Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter, and Iorek Byrnison and the cold and beautiful Northern setting capture the reader's attention; the constantly twisting plot and escalating suspense are riveting; and Lyra and Pantalaimon are among the gutsiest and wiliest of adventurers. Touching, exciting, and mysterious by turns, this is a splendid work. a.a.f. Kim Siegelson The Terrible, Wonderful Tellin' at Hog Hammock Illustrated by Eric Velasquez. Set in the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia, this brief easy-to-read novel provides rich background detail on the life of the island inhabitants as it focuses on the story of a young boy who is suffering feelings of guilt over his grandfather's death. Jonas has never told anyone that he turned down his grandfather's invitation to go fishing the day the old man died. To make matters worse, his grandmother decides that he has inherited his grandfather's storytelling talent and announces that Jonas will take the old man's place at the big "tellin'" the next Sunday. These events are important, for in addition to being one of the few sources of entertainment for the community, they are the means by which the islanders transmit their history to the younger generation. The author sets up the opportunity for Jonas to opt out of this heavy responsibility, but in a satisfying climax, Jonas realizes that the only way to redeem himself is to accept the gift that has come to him naturally through his grandfather. The story reads smoothly, with the island patois being suggested rather than adhered to in a literal fashion. Young readers will gain some insights into the importance of stories as oral history in such traditional societies. Most important, Jonas's personal story is told with admirable craft and empathy. An author's note on the Gullah language is appended. n.v. H Cynthia Voigt Bad Girls Mikey and Margalo each approach their first day at a new school with some trepidation, but neither would ever let on to anyone else. Both girls elicit classroom giggles with their wise-cracking self-introductions; by mid-morning recess, they've managed to start the first schoolyard brawl of the year. Drawn together by their likenesses - they sense the troublemaker in each other and notice that both sign their papers with their initials, M.E. - they also clash over their differences. While Margalo writes her initials "Me," conveying her subtlety and control, Mikey writes "ME" like a shout, revealing her unchecked anger and total self-absorption. Yet together they form a powerful alliance. When the class bully, Louis Caselli, goes after Mikey, they send him into such a rage that he gets himself kicked out of class. Then Margalo plots how to get him back into class - simply "to show we can do it." Mikey's violent temper and the fact that she doesn't care what most people think make her a dangerous loose cannon, but Margalo's pretense of niceness, her devious plotting, and her insights about people make her far more dangerous - like a government agency that knows all your secrets. She starts rumors about their teacher, Mrs. Chemsky, and takes great satisfaction when they are repeated as truth. Mrs. Chemsky, however, proves to be a formidable opponent, armed with her own sharp perceptions. Voigt deftly portrays the dynamics of a fifth-grade classroom - the insiders, the outsiders, the hangers-on, and the veteran teacher. As in all power-alliances, Mikey and Margalo continually test each other's loyalty, and they come close to blows when they both want the class presidency. But they want each other's company more and join forces in the end to serve detention together - in their own creative way. Voigt clearly takes wicked pleasure in her bad girls, as will the reader. l.a. Betty Ren Wright Haunted Summer Shy and frequently intimidated by her older brother, nine-year-old Abby is distressed to discover that the baby-sitter her parents have hired for the summer is even more timid than she. But Hannah's fearfulness forces Abby to take charge when a ghostly girl in a white cap begins to haunt the house, apparently seeking the old music box sent to Abby by her aunt. The author runs true to form in her latest ghost story for younger readers. The growth of self-confidence in both Abby and Hannah as they investigate the source of this mysterious vision provides a gratifying depth to the characterizations in the novel, which will engage readers enough to produce more than a few shivers on a hot summer day. n.v. Jane Yolen Passager This slight book, almost an episode, is nonetheless a worthy introduction to Arthurian legend for the younger reader. A feral child wanders the woods, sleeping in trees, fending for himself against cold, hunger, and wild animals. He has forgotten where he came from and lost his ability to speak. After some time, a kindly falconer comes across the wild boy; he captures and tames him. As the boy slowly recovers his ability to speak, he learns to be friends with the falconer's dogs and birds and, in a moving conclusion, remembers that his name is Merlin. This first book of the Young Merlin Trilogy will have readers awaiting the sequels. a.a.f. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In 1962, an American couple, residents of Beirut, suddenly disappear while sailing off the coast of Greece, and their three daughters are returned to the US to the custody of an aunt they barely know. The story is narrated by Mia, the youngest, who spends a summer in limbo in her aunt's Tennessee home, waiting for news of her parents, savoring the ordinary American milieu for which she has yearned, and adopting a series of compulsive rituals that she believes will bring her parents back. By summer's end, Mia has begun to accept both her loss and the possibility of life in a restructured family. The characterizations are utterly believable--the older half-sisters' endearing pseudo-sophistication, the aunt's exasperation, and Mia's descent into pathological behavior. Freeman's debut deals sensitively with issues of freedom and responsibility, alienation and ""belonging"" as they work themselves out in the untidy, intertwined skeins of human relationships. But the perfunctory treatment of the parents' disappearance in an otherwise highly detailed novel saps credibility from the rest of the vividly imagined and beautifully voiced writing (the depiction of 1960s small-town life is superb). An uneven first novel from an author of tremendous promise, and a journey of self-discovery well worth reading about. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5^-8. With her parents lost at sea, Mia and her two older half-sisters have been shipped from Beirut, Lebanon, to Aunt Kit's house in Ionia, Tennessee. Living in Beirut with her loving, nonconformist parents, Mia had wished for a "regular" American life, the kind she finds in Ionia. As the summer of 1962 unwinds and searchers fail to find her parents, Mia refuses to accept the inevitable. Their disappearance serves only as a backdrop to Mia's growth, from the time she jumps from a water tower and breaks her aunt's arms, to her taking refuge in an oak tree at summer's end. Mia gradually understands why her mother, like a mother cuckoo, left her and how thoroughly she, "the cuckoo's child," has disrupted her aunt's life. Despite the tragic premise and serious themes, this is ultimately an upbeat story, full of love, hope, humor, and eccentric characters that enliven Mia's summer. Narrator Mia tells her story with the eye and nose of a poet, as when she recalls the aroma of a grocery store, "a good mix of fruit and floor wax and coffee." The voice is consistently that of a girl on the cusp of sexual awareness, confusing the terms creation and ovulation, but disturbed by her aunt's sexual attraction to a married man. With three nieces suddenly thrust upon her, Aunt Kit undergoes as much change as Mia. In the end, Mia confesses, "I can't be just regular." That's true of this first novel, too. It's not "just regular." It is extraordinary. --Linda Perkins
