2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kaleidoscope Eyes: An Amazing Novel in Verse, June 21, 2010
Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jen Bryant is the second novel in verse I've read in the past week. I was trying to explain to my daughter, who was quite interested in the layout as she was paging through it, how very interesting these books are. While it may seem easier to compose a story with so few words, my thoughts after reading Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards just a few days ago and Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jen Bryant today, is that writing a story with so few words may actually be more difficult. Each phrase conveys so much. Writing up a short summary of these books has left me feeling as though I cannot clearly communicate the many facets of either story adequately.
Kaleidoscope Eyes is set during the Vietnam War.
The cast of characters includes:
Lyza, who is a teenager coping with her mother's absence, trying to grow up. Her grandfather passes away, leaving an envelope only for her. The information in the envelope leads her and her friends on the hunt for a buried treasure that Captain Kidd, a pirate, buried near her New Jersey town.
Denise - Lyza's sister, is busy dating Hairy Harry, a long-haired war protester, and listening to Janice Joplin. The sisters are often at odds, and Denise is truly a vision of sixties pop culture.
Their father is a professor at a local college, working long hours to repay the debts their mother accumulated before deserting her family. While he is against the war, he is quiet about his feelings in order to keep his job.
Malcolm, Lyza's good friend, is an African American male, whose brother, Dexter, gets drafted to go to war. Both acknowledge that his race may put him where the worst fighting is taking place. The issue of race are evident when Malcolm cannot find a job because he is black and he has never been seated at the restaurant where Denise works.
Carolann, Lyza's best girlfriend is instrumental to the location of Captain Kidd's treasure as is Malcolm.
Bryant does an amazing job of weaving in the feelings present in the sixties - the fear and anger about Vietnam, the sadness of those who fought in Vietnam and returned changed forever, the way in which music and entertainers influenced the teens of this decade. Even Bryant's title, Kaleidoscope Eyes, originates from the Beatles song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
This book was fabulous and I will highly recommend this for teen readers.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, June 6, 2009
Gold Star Award Winner!
Lyza's grandfather left her three carefully folded maps and an envelope that will take her and her two best friends on the adventure of a lifetime as they search for buried treasure.
But even if the three thirteen-year-olds manage to decipher the clues and locate the treasure, how will they keep it secret from their parents and the rest of the town?
Set during the Vietnam War, this novel allows the reader to learn about historical facts and figures of the time while enjoying the mystery and adventure of a hunt for pirate treasure.
I absolutely loved KALEIDOSCOPE EYES, and though its structure threw me off a bit at first, I soon found myself reading along with no trouble.
I enjoyed hunting treasure with Bryant's characters as they discovered the past, struggled through the present, and looked toward a bright future. The real treasure was the way these characters overcame obstacles and kept going in the face of the turmoil and confusion around them.
Reviewed by: Joan Stradling
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A secret treasure hunt, complete with pirates., December 23, 2011
thirteen-year-old Lyza finds three maps in her grandfather's house after his death. It appears that her grandfather has left her clues to find the famed pirate William Kid's treasure...in New Jersey! Taking place in the late 60s, KALEIDOSCOPE EYES has all the vibrancy of the era, and Bryant delves into history -- both 1960s and 1690s -- in all the best ways. With all the sneaking around, Lyza's sister thinks she must be on drugs, but when Lyza and her friend Malcolm confide in her sister's boyfriend, everything just might fall into place. It's a secret treasure hunt, complete with pirates. What's not to love?
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