A Girl Named Zippy

The first five minutes of this endearing memoir will capture any listener as Kimmel's gently wry voice shares anecdotes from her childhood in a small town. An eclectic cast of characters dances through a small Midwestern community, and their quirky escapades make perfect fodder for a particularly observant child. Kimmel's voice is comfortable and pleasant, appropriately understated as she assumes different voices; it's like the listener is hearing stories told by an old friend. Prepare to laugh aloud at the author's dry wit, as well as her vivid accounts of small town happenings that may seem all too familiar. Haven Kimmel's skill with words shines even more brightly when she reads those words herself. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 1, 2001
It's a clich to say that a good memoir reads like a well-crafted work of fiction, but Kimmel's smooth, impeccably humorous prose evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel. Born in 1965, she grew up in Mooreland, Ind., a place that by some "mysterious and powerful mathematical principle" perpetually retains a population of 300, a place where there's no point learning the street names because it's just as easy to say, "We live at the four-way stop sign." Hers is less a formal autobiography than a collection of vignettes comprising the things a small child would remember: sick birds, a new bike, reading comics at the drugstore, the mean old lady down the street. The truths of childhood are rendered in lush yet simple prose; here's Zippy describing a friend who hates wearing girls' clothes: "Julie in a dress was like the rest of us in quicksand." Over and over, we encounter pearls of third-grade wisdom revealed in a child's assured voice: "There are a finite number of times one can safely climb the same tree in a single day"; or, regarding Jesus, "Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn't be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn't afraid of blind people." (Mar.) Forecast: Dreamy and comforting, spiced with flashes of wit, this book seems a natural for readers of the Oprah school of women's fiction (e.g., Elizabeth Berg, Janet Fitch). The startling baby photograph on the cover should catch browsers' eyes.