The tumor’s not malignant, but it-or the surgeries-could cause sight loss, personality change, or death. She has two surgeries, the first successful, the second taking place after the book’s end, leaving readers hanging. But recent dysfunctions in Maddie’s arm and leg mean, stunningly, that she has a brain tumor. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully) soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes in a unit they’ve all been looking forward to. Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until.? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it. Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Lacking the quirks and foibles that bring characters to life, Kek seems more a composite of traits designed to instruct readers than an engaging individual in his own right.ĭespite its lackluster execution, this story’s simple premise and basic vocabulary make it suitable for younger readers interested in the plight of war refugees.Īt a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever. His tribe, culture and language are never identified personal details, such as appearance and age, are vague or omitted. #Home of the brave katherine applegate fullFull of wide-eyed amazement and unalloyed enthusiasm for all things American, Kek is a generic-bordering on insulting-stereotype. When the owner plans to sell the cow, Kek becomes despondent. Later he returns with Hannah, a friendly foster child, and talks the cow’s owner into hiring him to look after it. #Home of the brave katherine applegate seriesFrom the author of the Animorphs series comes this earnest novel in verse about an orphaned Sudanese war refugee with a passion for cows, who has resettled in Minnesota with relatives.Īrriving in winter, Kek spots a cow that reminds him of his father’s herd, a familiar sight in an alien world.
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