Newbery Honor author Brooks (The Moves Make the Man) presents seven vignettes that expose the complex nature of Dolores, an uncommonly beautiful and bright girl who evolves from an outgoing, trusting seven-year-old to a cynical, seemingly friendless teenager. The most dramatic tales open and close the volume. In the first, her older brother, Jimmy, perhaps the most winning and fully fleshed-out character in the novel, foils two women's attempt to kidnap Dolores in the Wal-Mart where he works; in the finale, Dolores, now 16, escapes from the car of a man who tries to rape her in New York City. Set during the years between these two incidents, the other stories offer insight into her relationships with her divorced parents (she adores her father but has a mutually hostile rapport with her mother) and with peers (a loner in sixth grade, she becomes the target of classmates' vicious rumors and, in high school, defies the dictates of the bossy head cheerleader after joining the squad). In another standout entry, Dolores attends a party at which a macho athlete attempts to make the moves on her. Disgusted, she takes refuge in the garage, where a gentle, shy boy finds her and the two share a first kiss. Brooks shapes a kind of cubist portrait of Dolores by piecing together various individuals' perspectives of her; she remains sufficiently aloof and elusive even from her mother's point of view. Through his portrayal of Dolores, the author inventively creates the literary equivalent of the adolescent experience: a heightened intelligence, a raised consciousness and a flurry of contradictions. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-Witty dialogue, nonconformist antics, and mature insights bring loner Dolores to life in this sequence of seven stories that reveals pivotal moments in her life. At age seven, she is rescued from abductors by her older brother Jimmy, who works at Wal-Mart as a music guru in the CD department. While her divorced parents vie for influence over their children, Dolores appreciates the predictability and bohemian encouragement of her father, who buys her an electric guitar and signs her up for ice hockey in spite of the restrictive attitudes of her disapproving mother. Dolores is comfortable with herself. Sixth-grade playground teasing and rumors about her prematurely big chest and her supposed crush on a female teacher go nowhere because the girl calmly turns the other cheek. At a high school party, the teen eludes the mocking sexual intent of a macho basketball star and finds kindness and a shared music interest with William, a classmate who has admired her from afar. And finally, at age 16, Dolores is abducted by a passerby, but this time she saves herself. Do is an intriguing, sophisticated character whose clever verbal sparring reveals truths about herself and others. Her brother and father are constants in her life, and she is a loner but not lonely. Brooks taps into adolescent interests with his timely references to music, fashion, and sports. In Dolores, he has created an engaging character whose indomitable spirit defies labels, abuse, and conformity, and whose coming-of-age vignettes are both lighthearted and liberated.
Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, NC
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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