Literature - Authors & Writers, Authors - Biography
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Overview
Like every fifth grader, Esm Raji Codell spent her days within the small world of school, neighborhood, and family. But this small world provides rich material for the often hilarious, always engrossing stories and vignettes in this book. Esm tells us about: the night she and her mother became "egg vigilantes" against an illegally parked car; her freewheeling first school, where kids could choose disco dancing instead of math; her dangerous neighborhood, which her father made seem friendly and wondrous; the Passover dinner when she stole a matzoh right out from under a rabbi; the awe-inspiring, life-threatening Chicago snowstorms; and lessons about love from tea-reading gypsies and Popeye cartoons.Editorials
Publishers Weekly
The author of Sahara Special returns with this collection of colorfully and carefully detailed anecdotes from her grade-school years, circa 1979 Chicago. Whether she's hurling eggs from her apartment balcony (with encouragement from her mother) onto the shiny car of a "rich schmuck," describing her parents' sometimes loud shouting fights or the fascinating layout of her grandmother Evelyn's apartment, Codell paints a realistic and deeply felt childhood. Her bright, occasionally soft-spoken voice has a youthful tone, which wrings notes of humor, revelation and poignancy from her written words. Listeners also get an extra treat here--two stories not included in the print edition of the book. Ages 8-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.Kirkus Reviews
Codell's memoir is a celebration of the people, places and moments of her Chicago childhood, a fond reflection upon "what it was like to be a child" in her place, in her time. More than just her story, though, it is meant to be a model for readers and listeners, who are encouraged to pay attention to their lives and relish the little things that become memories. Richly detailed chapters on her neighborhood, a mammoth snowstorm, school life, grandparents, love and religion make for fine reading aloud and superb models for young writers. Each section begins, "Let me tell you something about," and readers are swept into a ten-year-old's urban world to witness mother and daughter egging an illegally parked car, a little brother swallowed up by the snow, Esme begging a friend to beat her up so she won't have to go to piano lessons, men at the basketball hoop, "brown arms gathering underneath like stems reaching for the same orange flower." Her enchanting, evocative writing inspires readers to see the wonder and magic in their ordinary lives, and maybe smile to themselves. (introduction) (Nonfiction. 9+)Book Details
Published
July 28, 2006
Publisher
New York : Hyperion Paperbacks For Children, c2006.
Pages
304
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780786836529