Customer Reviews

Dancing In Cadillac Light

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4 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I can turn my head to the right as we pass a little grey shack on the new blacktop road and see a big green Cadillac sitting in the dirt driveway. Wonder how those folk can afford that, I might wonder as we whiz by. Kimberly Holt has the answers in her book "Dancing in Cadillac Light". The story, read in one sitting, swept me along because I know these people or maybe their "kin". Growing up in small town Louisiana and living in East Texas, I know first hand that Mrs. Holt has nailed this time and place down perfectly. That's what I like so much about all her books. They are about real places, and especially real people.

I met Ms. Holt in ... (basis for her fictional town of Moon). She is like her characters...down-to-earth, witty, and honest. As a twenty-seven year old teacher, I read this novel for three reasons: its setting ... I've read her other novels and loved them, and to find new reading material for recommendation to my students. I was not disappointed. Jaynell and her family are easy to identify with, easy to follow, and easy to love. The story line is not difficult and the messages ring all too true! Pick this one up, you won't stop 'till the end.

Jaynell Lambert misses her grandmother something awful. So does her grandfather. Grandpap has hardly said a word since his wife died. Finally, Jaynell's parents bring Grandpap to live with them, and Jaynell is forced to share a room with her younger sister Racine. Even though Racine is only eleven months younger, She and Jaynell couldn't be more different. Racine loves to dance and giggle with her friends. Jaynell likes to go with Grandpap and fish and ride in his car. And Jaynell's dad has asked her to keep a extra close eye on Grandpap....he's been mighty strange as of late. This wonderful book by Kimberly Willis Holt explores the social differences in small town life, how we are afraid of that which is different, and how a young girl learns to honor the legacy left by someone she loves.

Kimberly Holt and Sharon Creech both write of strong young female protagonists living in rural settings with eccentric and endearing family members. Following Zach Beaver and Walk 2 Moons, when I compare Holt's LA Sky and Cadillac with Creech's Ruby Holler and Chasing Redbird, Holt wins--hands down. She simply has a better mastery of this genre.

Cadillac is just a delightful story; chock full of eccentric characters and humor in a quaint, rural setting in the year that Neil Armstrong walked the moon. Time after time, Jaynell, the protagonist, makes you smile and chuckle with her one line "zingers" that speak her opinions on everything from "white trash" to her coquetish sister, Racine. The humor is perfect for the primary audience of children as well as adults.

The best zinger of all occurs in the second paragraph of page 137. Jaynell's parents have just returned from a getaway weekend of reconciliation and romance at the lakeside trailer of Uncle Floyd. Jaynell tells the reader, "Mama seemed different...even Daddy seemed to have a lift in his walk...Uncle Floyd had been right...there was nothing catching a fine bass wouldn't cure." Children will laugh but adults will find the word play in the last line and howl!

There is much for children to experience and learn in this story. Don't miss sharing it with your students.

Everyone thinks that Jaynell and Racine's Grandpa has gone crazy when they find out that his died, so Grandpa leaves the homeplace and moves in with his daughter which is Jaynell and Racine's mom. Jaynell and her grandpa are really close, but when grandma died she felt like grandpa had been yanked from her world. It was Christmas Break when Grandpa moved in so Jaynell wasn't in school, but both of her parents's had to work. Jaynell's dad told her to keep an eye on Grandpa to make sure he didn't get into any trouble, so Jaynell did. The next morning Jaynell did exactly what her dad told her to do. Grandpa got up and got cleaned up for the day, and then he left the house, so Jaynell followed. She felt bad about being so sneaky around her grandpa since they were so close. She ran up next to him and asked where he was going, but he did not answer. She followed him all the way when they finally arive at the cemetary. As they walked through the cemetary grandpa told stories of how the people had died. Everyday they walked to the cemetary together and looked at grandma's grave. They still didn't have a headstone for it. One morning grandpa got up and instead of walking to the cemetary he started heading to Longview, a town outside of Moon, Texas, when Mr. Bailey picked them up and gave them a ride to Longview. Mr. Bailey was heading there to bid on some old abandoned junk cars. Jaynell did not know where they were going in Longview, but she went along with it. When they approached a car deliership, grandpa said this will be fine, so Mr. Bailey dropped them off. The next thing Jaynell was riding in a cadillac with her grandpa, he woke up that morning and wanted to buy a cadillac. The next couple of weeks grandpa and Jaynell drove through town in the cadillac. Grandpa loved the cadillac. They made rounds everyday stopping at people's houses, including the Pickens. The Pickens were the poorest family in town, but everyday grandpa would stop by to get some cookies and coffee. One day when they arrived he didn't go in, instead Willie and Lily Belle Pickes got in the Cadillac. They asked grandpa if he would give them a ride in the cadillac. So he did, they drove around, and then arrived at the homeplace, and everyone got quite. Nobody had been to the homplace since grandma died. The house was bare, it looked like a ghost house. Lily Belle said she would love to live in a nice house like that. The next day Jaynell over slepted and didn't catch grandpa before he left in the cadillac. She went outside and couldn't help but notice that the Pickens were moving. They drove by in Grandpa's cadillac, he was driving and they were heading to the homplace. Come to find out Grandpa let them move in. That evening grandpa didn't come home, so Jaynell and her dad got in the pickup truck and drove down the road looking for him.......to find out what happened you can read the funny and exciting book, i loved it and i highly suggest that other teenagers read this book to!! Thank you for reading my book review over Dancing in Caillac Light!

Dancing In The Cadillac Lights was a very well written book. I like the way that Kimberly Willis Holt describes her characters. For example, she gives a very good description of Jaynell. She tells that Jaynell is a tom boy and she is "not a girlish girl." The story is about a family that lives in a small town, Antler, Texas, and everybody in the town always hears everybody's business. Everybody in this family of four are the same, except for there is one oddball and that is Jaynell. One day Jaynell's grandpap becomes sick and has to move in with Jaynell and her family, and over the time that grandpap has to stay with that family, grandpap and Jaynell get a better bond that takes them closer together. So overall Dancing In Cadillac Lights was a good, even though it was short, but you could read it anytime.

Daily strolls through the cemetery, snipe hunts, spying and riding fancy driving lessons are just a few of the adventures that Jaynell Lambert has in Dancing in Cadillac Light by Kimberly Willis Holt. This is a sweet book that begins in the summer of 1968. Jaynell is excited about men walking on the moon, but the big news closer to home is the anticipation of paved roads in front of her house. This is a sign of status, indicating that theirs was improving, so she thought.

Another big event was grandpap moving in. Jaynell loves spending time with her grandpap, mostly because he gives her driving lessons. However, there are more meaningful lessons that Jaynell is learning from her grandpap, that she isn't aware of. She doesn't realize the valuable lessons until after he's gone. Jaynell learns of her family secrets and remembers the example set by grandpap that shape her into the kind of person her family would be proud of.

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It is 1968, just before Neil Armstrong's historic walk on the moon, and eleven-year-old Jaynell Lambert lives in the little village of Moon, TX, with her father Rollins, mother Arlene, and ten-year-old sister Racine. Her mother's sister, Aunt Loveda Thigpen, and her family, Uncle Floyd and cousins Sweet Adeline and Little Floyd, live in nearby Marshall, TX. Jaynell's Grandpap, Maurice Boudreaux, also lives in Moon. A little while before the book opens, Grandma had died. Grandpap started moping and mumbling around, so Aunt Loveda and Uncle Floyd took him home to live with them until he started planting sugarcane near Loveda's roses, so the Lamberts took him into their home, and Jaynell had to move into a room with Racine.
A lot of people think that old Maurice is going crazy. He had been a mailman, and now he wanders around the neighborhood, taking folks' mail into their house from their mailboxes and visiting with them. While out on Caddo Lake in his boat with Jaynell, he runs some duck hunters off, although admittedly it was not yet duck season. He goes and buys a bright green Cadillac and even lets Jaynell drive it in the field. The only other crazy person whom Jaynell knows is Betty Jean Kizer who, after her son Clyde T. was killed while swimming in the creek, runs around with wild hair and dances in the moonlight. Then, Grandpap turns his old house over to the Pickenses, a family which many in town consider "white trash." Uncle Floyd is even talking about going to the sheriff for an eviction notice. What will Jaynell learn about her grandfather that will change her attitude towards him, her own family, and even the Pickenses?
The characters of Kimberly Willis Holt's books, which include My Louisiana Sky, Mister and Me, and When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, have been called quirky. I would certainly agree that this is true for Dancing in Cadillac Light as well. It is an interesting story that will give today's children some insight into the lives of poorer people in rural Texas during the 1960s. I have a little trouble considering a time through which I lived (I was fourteen in 1968, just three years older than Jaynell) as a subject for "historical fiction," but then it is true nonetheless! Besides some common euphemisms, there is one instance of the "d" word by Jaynell's father, and the author seems somewhat fixated on using childish slang terms for urine and the rear end, probably to appeal to juvenile minds. Jaynell is beginning to develop and notices "curves" and "bumps." The younger boyfriend of an older lady in town is called a gigolo. There is a little bit of dishonesty portrayed in the book when Aunt Loveda bids up customers at Uncle Floyd's auction, but that is portrayed in somewhat of a negative light. On the positive side, respect by children for adults is emphasized, and in spite of their difficulties this is a family which hangs together. The conclusion is satisfying.

My opinion of this book is that it would be better off in the hands of a nine year old. In a way this book was a bit too juvenile for me. The hardest word was "hernia".
The story took place in Moon, Texas, where the roads hadn't been paved yet. Grandpap becomes ill. He moves with the Jaynell's family. Gradpap buys an emerald greed Cadillac. He teaches Jaynell how to drive. Grandpap passes away. They sell the Cadillac. Not exactly my idea of an interesting book. This book was very vague. I couldn't even find the climax. I would not recommend this book if there were others.

Though not as powerful as When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, Kimberly Willis Holt has given another fine performance in Dancing In Cadillac Light - a story about family secrets, small town secrets, and social classes. The main character Jaynell learns that those she and others look down upon are not too far from who she is. Interesting characters, especially Jaynell's grandfather. Not a classic, but certainly a good book to read on a summer's day. Enjoy!