From School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-Three unsuccessful romances, targeted for African-American reluctant readers. Jasmine Candle, set in Kenya, is about Zenobia, child of a secret marriage between two people from warring tribes. The circumstances of her birth come to light at one of the tribal festivities, and she is condemned to death. The young man ordered to kill her falls in love with her and ends up questioning tribal taboos. While this story has a fast-paced plot with interesting characters, it has inconsistencies. In one scene, Zenobia falls into a deep pit and hurts her ankle; in the next paragraph, she is running through the forest. In addition, there are some scenes in which the sequence of events is not always clear. In Gift of Life, Thembi, in her early 20s, is a secretary at a large Johannesburg newspaper and lives with her parents in an upper middle-class area. She falls in love with Mduduzi, and then tragedy strikes-she succumbs to polio. The rest of the story focuses on her coming to terms with her illness. The premise of a daughter of a wealthy, educated family in a modern city not receiving polio shots as a child strains credibility, as does her relationship with Mduduzi. In Place of Gentle Waters, Dr. Anne Caldwell returns to her native Kenya to assist Richard Giba with his trout farm. They work together warily (he had expected a man), argue, manipulate each other and, finally, overcome with some sort of emotion-possibly temporary insanity-sleep together. This only creates more problems in this unbelievable, gender-insensitive farce.-Pat Royal, Crossland High School, Camp Springs, MD
Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
