Strawberry Moon

Publishers Weekly

English's (Francie) moving novel of memory and families takes the form of a story within a story. As the book opens, young Imani resents her mother's "haphazard" plan to visit her Auntie Dot in Los Angeles while she works out problems with Imani's father. Most of the novel then follows the reminiscences of her mother, June, during their long car ride. June chronicles her "year of troubles" in the 1950s when her parents separated, and she and her father and brother, Junior, lived with Auntie Dot. The structure at times undermines the universal dramas of fifth grader June; the voices of June's children intermittently interrupt the narrative in brief passages. But the author crafts each individual episode into a poignant vignette. Everything in L.A. seemed foreign to June, including the tropical flowers, the constant sunshine, and especially the other students in the fifth grade. Auntie Dot emerges as a strong, wise advocate who disciplines June for her pranks, but also comforts and understands her. For example, Auntie Dot teaches June that children born in her birthday month (June) have their own strawberry moon ("She might as well have dropped a diamond into my hand giving me the name of my very own moon," says June). Though the details of the 1950s abound, readers will also identify with the timeless portrayal of fickle peers, as June's new friends Rhonda and Renee alternately accept and exclude her. Ultimately, June's tale of frailty, fear and troubles balanced by love heals and bolsters Imani's courage to wait more patiently for the next moon. Ages 8-12. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

The year Junie is ten, her father takes her and her brother to California to live with his sister. Junie has much to adjust to¾her parents' separation, the difference between Chicago and Los Angeles and Auntie Dot with her old-fashioned rules and ladies' luncheons. Junie longs to fit in but is unsure of the boundaries. She lops off the blossom of Auntie Dot's bird-of-paradise plant. She puts pepper in Dot's Sock-It-To-Me cake and eats all the fresh pineapple, spoiling two luncheons. Junie seems to float above these misdeeds, not sure why she does them, yet unable to stop herself. She dreads falling into the friendship abyss like Eva, the classroom loser. Then she becomes friends with Rhonda and Renee. Rhonda is an instigator, leading the other girls into various antics. Junie refuses to steal from Mrs. Yamamoto, a former internee, and believes excluding Eva from Rhonda's slumber party is cruel. Yet she clings to her dubious status as a member of the threesome until her mother arrives. Set in the nineteen-fifties, this is a fine portrayal of an African-American family at a crossroads. However, the book is unnecessarily burdened with a weak parallel subplot and a slow beginning. 2001, Farrar Straus Giroux, $16.00. Ages 8 to 12. Reviewer: Candice Ransom

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-While driving from Chicago to L.A., Junie tells her children about the year she, her brother, and father spent with her aunt when her parents separated. Fifth-grade Junie seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble as she tried to adjust to life without her mother. She was insecure and vulnerable, uncomfortable in Auntie Dot's house. But when Dot explained that Junie's moon is the strawberry moon because she was born in June, she gives a lonely child something of her very own. "She might as well have dropped a diamond into my hand-giving me the name of my very own moon." Through these flashbacks, Junie's daughter, Imani, sees the similarities between her own situation, in which she resentfully leaves her dad in Chicago, and her mother's feelings of abandonment many years before. By the end of the trip, Imani begins to see the role Auntie Dot played in her mother's life as well as the significance of this trip west. The power of peer pressure is discussed; some racial issues are touched upon, ethical issues addressed, and hard lessons learned. Conversations between Imani and her mother are denoted by italicized print and are told in third person; the flashbacks switch to regular print and first person-a technique that is not altogether successful. The device distances readers from the main character, and they never really get to know Imani. Nonetheless, English captures the subtleties of a young black girl progressing through adolescence, facing a family crisis, and, with the help of extended family, successfully navigating to a place of self-confidence and acceptance.-Kit Vaughan, Chesterfield County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Pity the poor papa penguin as he perseveres in protecting his precious progeny. He has to care for the emperor penguin egg by himself through two months of windy winter weather ("Screech, whoooo!") while the mother penguin is off searching for food. Guiberson (Tales of the Haunted Deep, 2000, etc.) has crafted a nonfiction narrative that imparts general information about the birth cycle of emperor penguins in combination with the more engaging story of a specific mother and father penguin caring for their own egg and the resulting chick. This gives more dramatic impact to the text, but is a little confusing at times with intertwined discussions of both the larger penguin group and references to the father and mother. Interesting factoids and interspersed parenthetical references to penguin sounds or movements ("Waddle, waddle.") add extra punch to the text. Paley's (Little White Duck, 2000, etc.) stellar watercolor collage illustrations in vibrant double-page spreads steal the show, with midnight blue skies, downy gray penguin chicks, and graphically striking adult penguins. Although The Emperor's Egg, by Martin Jenkins (1999), covers similar territory, school and public libraries will find this title useful for elementary school science reports and nature lovers will love the pictures. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-9)