As a digital subscriber, you’ll receive unlimited access to Horn Book web exclusives and extensive archives, as well as access to our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database.
To access other site content, visit The Horn Book homepage.
To continue you need an active subscription to hbook.com.
Subscribe now to gain immediate access to everything hbook.com has to offer, as well as our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database, which contains tens of thousands of short, critical reviews of books published in the United States for young people.
Thank you for registering. To have the latest stories delivered to your inbox, select as many free newsletters as you like below.
No thanks. Return to article
(3)
YA
Fourteen-year-old April's neighborhood would be perfectly ordinary if it weren't also a mafia enclave. Lurie's meticulous re-creation of 1970s suburbia and the emotions, enthusiasms, and anxieties of her heroine are witty and believable. The balance she strikes between April's relatively normal family and a neighbor who packs a handgun while secretly handing out hundred-dollar bills makes this story unique.