Deliver us from Evie

New York Times Book Review

So original, fresh and fiery, you'd think that M. E. Karr, one of the grand masters of young-adult fiction, was just now getting started.

Children's Literature - Kathleen Karr

Kerr has taken on topics as diverse as AIDS, teenage dwarves, religious fanaticism and the Holocaust. She's explicated them all for her teenage readers with tremendous insight and wit. Evie, with its difficult subject of lesbianism, is no exception. Seen through the eyes of her younger brother Parr, tough, bright, masculine Evie emerges as a contender for our affections. She's a natural farmer, she can fix anything, and when she falls in love with a beautiful preppie the reader is worked through the same agonies as her caring family. How does someone different fit in? Is there room in the world for these differences? Evie becomes not a pro-homosexual lifestyle treatise, but rather a touching story about the ways and strengths of love.

The ALAN Review - Kay Parks Bushman

Evie Burrman shakes up her family as well as the entire town of Duffton, Missouri, simply by showing her true self for the first time. When she reveals that she is having an affair with Patsy Duff, the daughter of the banker who holds the loan for the Burrman farm, Mr. Duff puts pressure on Evie's parents to do something about their daughter. Even Evie's brother Parr is affected when his girlfriend questions him about his sister's relationship. Despite her family's desire to change Evie, they learn that they cannot - forcing her, with no other choice, to move away. Kerr creates a realistic conflict, which frequently surrounds the situation of homosexuality. With realistic characters and a rural setting, she paints a credible plot that should interest mature teens.

Children's Literature - Susie Wilde

Parr, the youngest of three farm siblings, tells this story. He's dying to escape rural life, but his brother has gone off to college and has become a frat brat. Suddenly his sister Evie, who most loves the farm, begins a relationship with the rich and beautiful Patsy Duff. The author courageously takes on stereotyping, parental fears and protections, rural small-mindedness, and religious smallness. She does this with a plot that moves so fast that all of these things are part of the story rather than issues bundled together. Always a fictional forerunner, Kerr has created characters, a family, and a town that show the complexities of coming out in a small town.