From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Lee Bloom, 10, is an imaginative, intelligent, but lonely girl living in Brooklyn, NY, in 1960. Her best friend has moved away, and the last person she wants to befriend is her classmate Eddie Wagner, who seems to be spying on her, and teases her because she skipped a grade. When Lee meets vibrant Polly Burke, who makes roses "talk," creates settings for shipwrecks, and prepares to help Peter Pan defend Brooklyn against Captain Hook's pirates, the two girls know that they have found a kindred spirit in one another. However, Lee is Jewish, Polly is Catholic, and their bigoted mothers are fiercely prejudiced against the girls' friendship. As Lee struggles to remain friends with Polly, she also discovers an unlikely ally in coarse but good-hearted Eddie. Also, Lee's mother eventually reveals some redeeming qualities, but Polly's mother never moves beyond her fire-and-brimstone tracts. While other grown-ups offer wisdom where they can, Lee is an interesting character who is able to figure out and deal with her problems without adult intervention. Elements of magical realism enhance the story, as do scenes filled with humor, and the themes of prejudice and injustice may prompt readers toward further thought and discussion.
Farida S. Dowler, formerly at Bellevue Regional Library, WACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 4-7. Lee feels like the Rapunzel of Brooklyn, although she is stuck in a fourth-floor apartment instead of a tower. Her best friend, wheelchair-bound by polio, has moved to Florida; Eddie, the misfit new boy in sixth grade, keeps harassing her; and her mom doesn't want her to associate with
schwartzer (blacks) or goyim (non-Jews). When Lee is invited to play at Polly Burke's big house, she is immediately drawn into pretend games of shipwrecks, a poisoned tea party, and flying lessons. When Lee and Polly plot to help Peter Pan fight pirates coming by cloud-ship galleon, fantasy fringes on reality. It seems that pirates aren't the only threat in Brooklyn in 1960: the bias and bigotry of the girls' mothers--each staunch in her religious convictions--works to break apart the children's friendship. Lee's voice is that of a young girl caught between believing in the fantastical and learning the realities of prejudice. The conflict forces her to ask what it means to be Jewish and question whether Jews go to heaven or hell or, maybe, Neverland. Place and time are exceptionally well defined in this perceptive story that tackles an age-old dilemma for children: Are parents always right? Today's readers may not understand why Lee, at 11, can still believe in fairy tales and invisible things, but they will relate to her courage to question the world around her.
Julie CumminsCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
