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Grove, Vicki
5 Reviews
(2)
YA
Trey, Zero, Steve, and Tucker borrow an ID, buy some beer, and head out for the celebration of their lives. Tucker is consumed with survivor guilt after the other three die in a fiery crash. Enter Bud, his dying step-grandfather, who maneuvers Tucker into taking a road trip straight out of Greek mythology. Tucker's voice--and his guilt and anguish--ring true.
Reviewer: Betty Carter
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2013
(4)
YA
On a bluff above a medieval town, fourteen-year-old Rhiannon tends to the dying with her mother and grandmother until a murder disturbs their serenity. The unexpected arrival of a leper colony, a lost prince, and an independently minded monk add to the intriguing if far-fetched plot. Grove's historical realism sometimes wavers, but she excels at evoking a world in which Christianity is ascendant while pagan beliefs still linger.
Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac
(4)
4-6
Destiny's afternoons spent reading to elderly Mrs. Peck, a former Latin teacher who teaches Destiny about Greek mythology and other refined subjects, are a stark contrast to her life at home with her heartless, deadbeat step-dad and superstitious, neglectful mom. Although substantial conflicts are resolved in the end with satisfying but unrealistic precision, the first-person narrative is affecting and buoyed with intrigue.
Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann
(3)
4-6
In 1961, Frannie confronts evidence of racism, past and present, in her small Oklahoma town when she befriends a black girl who has recently moved there. Deceptively nostalgic at first, this compelling novel does not shy away from revealing the town's ugly secrets, which include a history of Klan activity, as it shows Frannie's insular life slowly unraveling.
Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann
(2)
4-6
For an in-class interview assignment, sixth-grader Carly draws the odd, withdrawn outsider Dustin, whose dysfunctional family and gun-toting father are legendary in their Missouri farm town. Carly learns her classmate is misunderstood and unfairly dismissed and determines to save him. Although the ending perhaps strains credulity, the emotional tone rings true and the characterizations are strong.
Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.
5 reviews
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