From Publishers Weekly
In Johnson's (Humming Whispers) absorbing character study, the country prepares the bicentennial celebration of Independence Day while 13-year-old Doreen and her younger brother Robert start a new chapter in their lives without their father. The finalization of their parents' divorce sharpens Doreen's sense that nearly everyone else is moving forward while she "stays put" in Harvey, Ohio, a place "far out of everything and everybody." With the closing of the steel mill, the town's population is shifting ("Mama Dot says Harvey's becoming a place full of just-divorced women and their kids"). Through Doreen's narrative, which is infused with remarkable insight and exceptional tenderness, Johnson crystallizes the pain of being left behind. Although her sparse narrative gives only a sketchy depiction of the heroine's father, readers will feel the impact of his absence on his children and wife. The relationships between the protagonist and the other characters here generally are not as fully fleshed out as in Johnson's previous novels. However, Doreen's straightforward opinions ("We're as divorced as she [her mother] is") and poignant observations ("I will look at Robert and know I'll never figure out people's hearts") ring true. A quiet, heart-wrenching read. Ages 9-13.-- is") and poignant observations ("I will look at Robert and know I'll never figure out people's hearts") ring true. A quiet, heart-wrenching read. Ages 9-13.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8?A deftly detailed novel set in 1976. Johnson uses the particulars of the months after Doreen and Robert's father moves to Chicago and Doreen's best friend moves away to illuminate the universal experience of coping with loss. At the same time, a new girl, Jolette, moves into the neighborhood with her stepmother and too-quiet younger brothers. The sad setting, a neighborhood just outside the projects in a decaying Ohio town where the mills are closed and the trash-filled river smells, mirrors the depression of the characters: troubled children, recently divorced women, and men emotionally scarred from their service in Vietnam. The children fight their losses. Doreen, 13, decorates celebratory Bicentennial signs with yellow smiling faces and fuchsia full moons; Robert and Jolette make deals with themselves?he stops talking, she attempts to jump rope one million times. Their mothers cope. Mama Dot has gone back to Ohio State University; Miss Mary joins the church and finds a job in the church restaurant. Through explicit weather imagery, the author makes her message clear; difficult and disturbing as the time is, it is a storm that will pass. Once again Johnson has set attractive and realistic African-American characters in situations in which race is not the focus. This short, sensitive book will appeal most to reflective readers.?Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
