YA Book Reviews

Cooney, Caroline B. Tune in Anytime. Delacorte Press, 1999.

Caroline B. Cooney’s Tune in Anytime was an interesting look at two families. Primarily the story dealt with the unraveling of the ties that bind the dysfunctional Olivette family together. Edith, the mother, made “finding herself” a full time job. The oldest daughter, Marley, was self-centered and constantly ranting and raving. Daniel, the father, fell head-over-heels in lust with Marley’s college roommate, Persia . The only person acting like a responsible adult was the youngest daughter, Sophie. Sophie felt like her life had turned into a soap opera. Happily, the author provided a solid and ordinary family to compare with the Olivettes. Ted and his family were very down-to-earth people. The parents acted like adults and they were caring and respectful of one another.

Tune in Anytime described some outlandish events. However, I felt like the characters and events could have been real. In my mind, I could imagine the evening news describing the scene of a spurned wife driving a huge bulldozer into the house that her former husband was trying to sell out from under her. I almost dropped the book because I was laughing so hard when the mother (incongruently) “came back to the real world” and stared driving the huge bulldozer towards the house.

I would recommend Tune in Anytime to all young adults, but especially to anyone who is dealing with divorce. Children going through a divorce will be able to relate to Sophie’s feeling that she was the only person in her family who was still a family. Everyone else was single. KWR

Golden, Christopher. Body Bags. New York: Simon Pulse, 2002.

Review of Body Bags by Tara L. Dirst

Peck, Richard. A Long Way From Chicago ISBN: 0141303522 A Year Down Yonder ISBN: 0142300705

Having grown up in a small northern Illinois town and living the better part of my adult life in east-central Illinois, I took great pleasure in reading A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. Both books take place in a small town in Piatt County in central Illinois near Decatur. A Long Way from Chicago contains the stories of a brother and sister (Joey and Mary Alice) and their yearly visits with their grandma in her sleepy country town, which seemed so far from their home in Chicago . Each chapter is a story of their adventures with their Grandma, Mrs. Dowdell. In A Year Down Yonder, Mary Alice moves in with her grandma during the depression. The stories of Grandma Dowdell and how she secretly cares for individuals in her town are so delightful to read and reminded me of how special my own 95 year-old Grandma is. The stories also made me homesick for Illinois. Review by CJ Wong

Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

Stargirl, with a name like that she would have to be an original and she is. No one at Mica High has ever met anyone so non-conformant to the group norm. Stargirl sings happy birthday to student in the cafeteria while playing her ukulele. She drops money on the sidewalk for little kids to find. She cheers for BOTH teams at sports tournaments. Can anyone this selfless and caring survive the pressure to "follow the unwritten school rules" of behavior? Will her individuality be squashed or will the town of Mica, Arizona never be the same? KWR

Watts, Leander. Stonecutter / Leander Watts. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2002. 061816474X

The Stonecutter tells of Albion Straight, an apprentice stonecutter in rural New York in 1835. He lives with his master, treated like another son in the family. Those were strange times of signs in the sky, revivals, and cults. When strangers appear in town it seems they are some kind of menacing, religious folk. Another stranger offers Albion a job at ten times the going rate and he goes with his master’s approval. He goes beyond the edge of civilization to a strange house ruled by a man with an iron fist. There Albion is expected to use his gift at stonecutting to make a masterpiece for the lord of the house, but is he a guest artisan or is he a prisoner? The story is skillfully told in diary format and captures a sense of dread and tension that builds to the climactic conclusion. KWR