Tucker [Hardcover]

Tom Birdseye (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up

Eleven-year-old Tucker likes his life with his divorced father, until the nine-year-old sister he has not seen in years moves back in with them and claims that their mother wants them to become one family again.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-- Tucker and his father lead a somewhat spartan but steady life in rural Kentucky. Tucker , 11, has not seen his younger sister or mother since his parents' divorce 7 years before. At first, a visit by his nine-year-old sister, Olivia, seems intrusive, but the two siblings eventually find a comfortable level of companionship. He is jealous, however, of the constant stream of letters that Olivia receives from their mother, and is crushed when he finds that Olivia has been lying about their mother's hope for a reconciliation with their father. While Tucker's life has been enriched by Olivia's visit, one senses that nothing will have changed after her departure. A second theme is Tucker's fantasy life, in which he is preparing himself to become an Indian hunter and to kill his first deer. Undaunted when he finds that he is too young to get a hunting license and that his best friend has deserted their dreams in order to pursue a girl, Tucker does manage to shoot his first deer, but his fantasy crumbles when he watches the deer die an agonizing death. Tucker has come of age; it is obvious that he has learned some harsh, albeit necessary lessons about fantasy and reality. Besides a well-handled motif, this novel contains many issues: divorce, sibling rivalry, and unemployment. All are treated sensitively and realistically. This well-written novel contains enough adventure to appeal successfully to the intended age group, and should have wide appeal because of the sensitive handling of so many concerns. --Susan H. Williamson, Homer-Center School District, PA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Tom Birdseye grew up in North Carolina and Kentucky, an ardent fan of anything that smacked of sports, crawdads, mud balls, forts built in the woods, secret codes, bicycles without fenders, butter pecan ice cream, and snow. He was, however, decidedly uninterested in writing-or any academic aspect of school, for that matter-never imagining that at the age of thirty-five he would become a published author. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon, with his wife, Debbie and two daughters, Kelsey and Amy. When not writing or in classrooms talking with children and teachers about the writing process, he enjoys skiing, rock and mountain climbing, ski mountaineering, backpacking, mountain biking, kayaking, running, playing the string bass, and reading.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Holiday House; 1st edition (April 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823408132
• ISBN-13: 978-0823408139
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,951,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Little Things Bring a Family Together, June 24, 2002

By 

"cameoroze" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tucker (Hardcover)

This is the story of 6th grader Tucker Renfro, a boy whose dream is to be a part of a tribe, a family. His 9-year-old sister, Olivia, comes for an extended visit - the first time the two siblings have been together in seven years.

The story revails the little things that bring families together - and tears them apart. It's about Tucker coming of age. He learns that life is not always fair. Pain and pleasure go hand in hand to build a life ... a whole, full life.

3.0 out of 5 stars Tucker and His Family, October 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Tucker (Hardcover)

Tucker and his dad live together by themselves. His siter's name is Ashley. Tucker's father and mother got divorced when Tucker was 4 and his sister was 2. Now Tucker is 11 and Ashley is 9. His mother and his siter live in Kansas. So a couple of days before school started his siter came down to visit and so she is going to go to school with him. Tucker isn't really happy about her coming down. So when she got here he was kind of being mean to her and a jerk. On the first day of school his dad said to be nice and show her arund, now Tucker wasn't really happy about that, but he tried. Tucker's best friend, Bert, and Tucker both like to hunt. Tucker is suppost to make bow- and- arrows for Bert and him, and Bert is suppost to get the license to hunt. Bert meets Ashley and he likes her because she can burp when sombody tells her to and he thinks she is funny! Tucker gets jelouse and upset because Bert doesn't care anymore about hunting and Tucker is afraid that he will lose a friend. So then they get in a fight and apoligize and they become best friends again!! Mean wile Ashley has been mailing her mom letters saying how she is doing, and that she is having fun w/ Tucker, and she keeps asking her mom if Tucker and his dad and sister and mom could be a family again. One day Tucker went and got the mail and there was a letter that was for Ashley from her mom. Tucker couldn't take it any more and so he opened it and read it.
It said how his mom was doing and that she misses Ashley. At the bottom of the letter it said that they can not be a family again and that her mom and dad are just friends.
After Tucker read it he felt sad and depressed, but he said to himself that he couldn't look sad or depressed because he didn't want to look sad in front of his sister. Now Tucker is finally starting to like Ashley and now she has to go back home and they had just gotten to know each other. Tucker asked if she could stay for a little while longer and she was able to. So now are getting to know each other and be really good friends.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, December 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tucker (Hardcover)

My overall opinion about this book was that I found it very hard to understand and actually get into. The two things I hate most about this book was that the characters were flat, this means the characters didn't catch your attention much. Then the second thing was that they paraphrased almost everything, and I thought that was very hard to understand or even know what they were talking about. Like they would be talking about one thing then jump to something else. I would probably recommend this book to people who like Indian Cultures or like emotional books.