Full of Beans
گزارش تخلف
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
Starred review from May 16, 2016
In this excellent prequel to the Newbery Honor–winning Turtle in Paradise, Holm recounts the origins of the Diaper Gang, the group of barefoot boys who have the run of Key West during the Great Depression. Their unofficial leader, Beans, narrates the arrival of the New Dealers who attempt to transform the poverty-stricken island into a tourist destination. Through Beans’s eyes, Holm captures the population’s economic distress (“Our town looked like a tired black-and-white movie”), with his father heading north to look for work, his mother’s hands “red and raw” from doing the neighbors’ laundry, and the ubiquitous “conch chowder.” To help his family, Beans ventures into a life of crime, setting false fire alarms to create diversions for Cuban rum smuggler Johnny Cakes; dire repercussions motivate him to make amends, igniting his latent leadership skills to the town’s benefit. Period details—like keeping Sears and Roebuck catalogues handy in outhouses, “marble mania,” people with leprosy hidden by their families, and the Shirley Temple craze—make for entertaining and illuminating historical fiction. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management.
Narrator Kirby Heyborne's approachable style makes this heartwarming piece of historical fiction all the more engaging. Ten-year-old Beans Curry is a natural leader whose gang follows his lead on everything as they move around Depression-era Key West, Florida. Times are hard, and all of the townspeople scoff at the "New Dealers," government agents sent to turn the town into a tourist attraction. Holm infuses the story with homey facts of the times--party-line phones, newfangled sewing machines, Shirley Temple at "the pictures"--as well as old-fashioned slang that rolls off Heyborne's tongue. His gentle tone and energetic pacing keep the story moving to the unexpected conclusion. S.G. � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
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