Many things change for twelve-year-old Rabble Starkey, her mother, and her best friend, Veronica Bigelow, when Veronica's mother becomes mentally incapacitated and the Starkeys move in with the Bigelows.
Rabble Starkey
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-7 Twelve-year-old Parable Ann (``Rabble'') and her mother, Sweet Hosanna, live over the Bigelows' garage. Sweet-Ho is the hired help for the Bigelows, while Rabble is best friends with their daughter, Veronica. As the story opens, the two girls are working on a family tree assignment, and this somewhat worn device serves to introduce the characters. After a slow start, the pace picks up, but while Rabble's life is eventful enough, nothing much seems to happen possibly because the narrative is so low-key as to be almost soporific. Rabble and Veronica reluctantly befriend elderly, grumpy Millie Bellows; Veronica begins to show an interest in boys; Veronica's mentally unstable mother is institutionalized after nearly drowning her young son; and the beginnings of romance spring up between Sweet-Ho and Veronica's father. But while all this is going on, readers learn more about the secondary characters than about Rabble herself, despite the fact that she is the narrator. Although she has the potential to be a strong character, she never comes to life. The narration is littered with vernacular``So we was friends,'' ``Without no exceptions''which is annoying, although it lends a touch of realism to the story. Lowry's fans will read this despite its flaws, but it's a disappointing effort. Kathleen Brachmann, Highland Park Public Library, Ill.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Lowry . . . is adept at portraying the nuances of relationships and emotions. Here she presents a lively cast of characters in an unusual plot, skillfully handled." Kirkus Reviews with Pointers
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More About the Author
Lois Lowry is known for her versatility and invention as a writer. She was born in Hawaii and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and Japan. After several years at Brown University, she turned to her family and to writing. She is the author of more than thirty books for young adults, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader.s Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Her first novel, A SUMMER TO DIE, was awarded the International Reading Association.s Children.s Book Award. Ms. Lowry now divides her time between Cambridge and an 1840s farmhouse in Maine. To learn more about Lois Lowry, see her website at www.loislowry.com
author interview
A CONVERSATION WITH LOIS LOWRY ABOUT THE GIVER
Q. When did you know you wanted to become a writer?
A. I cannot remember ever not wanting to be a writer.
Q. What inspired you to write The Giver?
A. Kids always ask what inspired me to write a particular book or how did I get an idea for a particular book, and often it's very easy to answer that because books like the Anastasia books come from a specific thing; some little event triggers an idea. But a book like The Giver is a much more complicated book, and therefore it comes from much more complicated places--and many of them are probably things that I don't even recognize myself anymore, if I ever did. So it's not an easy question to answer.
I will say that the whole concept of memory is one that interests me a great deal. I'm not sure why that is, but I've always been fascinated by the thought of what memory is and what it does and how it works and what we learn from it. And so I think probably that interest of my own and that particular subject was the origin, one of many, of The Giver.
Q. How did you decide what Jonas should take on his journey?
A. Why does Jonas take what he does on his journey? He doesn't have much time when he sets out. He originally plans to make the trip farther along in time, and he plans to prepare for it better. But then, because of circumstances, he has to set out in a very hasty fashion. So what he chooses is out of necessity. He takes food because he needs to survive. He takes the bicycle because he needs to hurry and the bike is faster than legs. And he takes the baby because he is going out to create a future. And babies always represent the future in the same way children represent the future to adults. And so Jonas takes the baby so the baby's life will be saved, but he takes the baby also in order to begin again with a new life.
Q. When you wrote the ending, were you afraid some readers would want more details or did you want to leave the ending open to individual interpretation?
A. Many kids want a more specific ending to The Giver. Some write, or ask me when they see me, to spell it out exactly. And I don't do that. And the reason is because The Giver is many things to many different people. People bring to it their own complicated beliefs and hopes and dreams and fears and all of that. So I don't want to put my own feelings into it, my own beliefs, and ruin that for people who create their own endings in their minds.
Q. Is it an optimistic ending? Does Jonas survive?
A. I will say that I find it an optimistic ending. How could it not be an optimistic ending, a happy ending, when that house is there with its lights on and music is playing? So I'm always kind of surprised and disappointed when some people tell me that they think the boy and the baby just die. I don't think they die. What form their new life takes is something I like people to figure out for themselves. And each person will give it a different ending. I think they're out there somewhere and I think that their life has changed and their life is happy, and I would like to think that's true for the people they left behind as well.
Q. In what way is your book Gathering Blue a companion to The Giver?
A. Gathering Blue postulates a world of the future, as The Giver does. I simply created a different kind of world, one that had regressed instead of leaping forward technologically as the world of The Giver has. It was fascinating to explore the savagery of such a world. I began to feel that maybe it coexisted with Jonas's world . . . and that therefore Jonas could be a part of it in a tangential way. So there is a reference to a boy with light eyes at the end of Gathering Blue. He can be Jonas or not, as you wish.
author interview
A CONVERSATION WITH LOIS LOWRY ABOUT THE GIVER
Q. When did you know you wanted to become a writer?
A. I cannot remember ever not wanting to be a writer.
Q. What inspired you to write The Giver?
A. Kids always ask what inspired me to write a particular book or how did I get an idea for a particular book, and often it's very easy to answer that because books like the Anastasia books come from a specific thing; some little event triggers an idea. But a book like The Giver is a much more complicated book, and therefore it comes from much more complicated places--and many of them are probably things that I don't even recognize myself anymore, if I ever did. So it's not an easy question to answer.
I will say that the whole concept of memory is one that interests me a great deal. I'm not sure why that is, but I've always been fascinated by the thought of what memory is and what it does and how it works and what we learn from it. And so I think probably that interest of my own and that particular subject was the origin, one of many, of The Giver.
Q. How did you decide what Jonas should take on his journey?
A. Why does Jonas take what he does on his journey? He doesn't have much time when he sets out. He originally plans to make the trip farther along in time, and he plans to prepare for it better. But then, because of circumstances, he has to set out in a very hasty fashion. So what he chooses is out of necessity. He takes food because he needs to survive. He takes the bicycle because he needs to hurry and the bike is faster than legs. And he takes the baby because he is going out to create a future. And babies always represent the future in the same way children represent the future to adults. And so Jonas takes the baby so the baby's life will be saved, but he takes the baby also in order to begin again with a new life.
Q. When you wrote the ending, were you afraid some readers would want more details or did you want to leave the ending open to individual interpretation?
A. Many kids want a more specific ending to The Giver. Some write, or ask me when they see me, to spell it out exactly. And I don't do that. And the reason is because The Giver is many things to many different people. People bring to it their own complicated beliefs and hopes and dreams and fears and all of that. So I don't want to put my own feelings into it, my own beliefs, and ruin that for people who create their own endings in their minds.
Q. Is it an optimistic ending? Does Jonas survive?
A. I will say that I find it an optimistic ending. How could it not be an optimistic ending, a happy ending, when that house is there with its lights on and music is playing? So I'm always kind of surprised and disappointed when some people tell me that they think the boy and the baby just die. I don't think they die. What form their new life takes is something I like people to figure out for themselves. And each person will give it a different ending. I think they're out there somewhere and I think that their life has changed and their life is happy, and I would like to think that's true for the people they left behind as well.
Q. In what way is your book Gathering Blue a companion to The Giver?
A. Gathering Blue postulates a world of the future, as The Giver does. I simply created a different kind of world, one that had regressed instead of leaping forward technologically as the world of The Giver has. It was fascinating to explore the savagery of such a world. I began to feel that maybe it coexisted with Jonas's world . . . and that therefore Jonas could be a part of it in a tangential way. So there is a reference to a boy with light eyes at the end of Gathering Blue. He can be Jonas or not, as you wish.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rabble Starkey,
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Rabble Starkey (Paperback)
Rabble Starkey was an A++ book. One day Rabbles dad ran off with another person and left Rabble and her mom to fend for themselves. So then Rabble finds her and her mom living in the garage of a rich friends house (the Bigelows house). Then Mrs. Bigelow gets sick and has to go to the hospital. If you like suspenseful, fun to read stories than you have to read "Rabble Starkey". Another book I recommend is "Number the Stars", also by Lois Lowry.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the best book I ever read!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Rabble Starkey (Paperback)
Rabble Starkey is my favorite book.In fact, I re-read it last night.I felt like I knew Rabble,Veronica,Gunther,&Sweet-Ho.It was almost as though I lived in Highriver.It was so realistic and heart-warming. I really enjoyed reading it.I recommended it to my friends,and they've been reading it.I loved it!It was so true,so unlike anything I've read before.It was fantastic!
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I very good book about growing up!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Rabble Starkey (Paperback)
I thought that this was very good book.Even though there was no specific plot, the book seemed to be leading to something at each word written. The book was not full of action excitement, but it was full of the kind of excitement that will make you cry or get scared. To me, this was a book that even after I finished reading the words, I had to think about in order to finish the book.-Katharine Manning, American School In Japan, 6th Grade
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Veronica looked over from her desk and whispered to me when she saw Mrs. Hindler go to the supply closet and take out construction paper. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Millie Bellows, Norman Cox, Parker Condon, Ginger Starkey, Sweet Hosanna, Buddy Rivet, Grandma Bigelow, Collyer's Run, Corrine Foster, Grandpa Bigelow, Parable Ann, Reader's Digests, The Red Pony, Roger Watkins, The Grapes of Wrath, Albert Washington, Big Gun, Chef Boyardee, Gunther Bigelow, Gunther Philip Bigelow, Tracker Stargill New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Veronica looked over from her desk and whispered to me when she saw Mrs. Hindler go to the supply closet and take out construction paper. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Millie Bellows, Norman Cox, Parker Condon, Ginger Starkey, Sweet Hosanna, Buddy Rivet, Grandma Bigelow, Collyer's Run, Corrine Foster, Grandpa Bigelow, Parable Ann, Reader's Digests, The Red Pony, Roger Watkins, The Grapes of Wrath, Albert Washington, Big Gun, Chef Boyardee, Gunther Bigelow, Gunther Philip Bigelow, Tracker Stargill New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 15
books:
See all 15 books this book cites
33
books
cite this book:
See all 33 books citing this book
- The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck on page 129, and page 131
- Anastasia on Her Own by Lois Lowry in Front Matter
- The Red Pony (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by John Steinbeck on page 132
- Autumn Street by Lois Lowry in Front Matter
- Taking Care of Terrific by Lois Lowry in Front Matter
See all 15 books this book cites
- CliffsNotes The 1990s Newbery Medal Winners by Suzanne Pavlos on page 85, page 91, and page 153
- Attaboy, Sam! by Lois Lowry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Anastasia at your Service by Lois Lowry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Anastasia Has the Answers by Lois Lowry in Front Matter, and Back Matter
See all 33 books citing this book
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