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Bauer, Joan
13 Reviews
(3)
4-6
Baseball-crazy, heart-transplant-survivor Jeremiah, twelve, moves with his adoptive single dad to tiny Hillcrest, Ohio, where he endeavors to resurrect the town's failing middle-school baseball team. There's a lot going on in this heartstrings-tugging novel (even before you figure in subplots involving steroid abuse, a friend's absent father, newborn eagles, and more), but Jeremiah's upbeat personality and pragmatic voice should win readers over.
Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano
(4)
4-6
Anna is staying in her grandmother's idyllic town while her parents try to fix their marriage. Amid preparations for the annual flower festival, she witnesses a young girl being held against her will. Anna helps the authorities locate the girl while also supporting her family and friends prepping for the parade. Strong, lively characters carry the cumbersome plot lines, which all end neatly.
Reviewer: Pam Yosca
(2)
4-6
Because Sugar's mother can't resist the persuasions of Sugar's gambling father, the worst happens and they're evicted from their house. Sugar eventually ends up in a foster home where she finds space to deal with her "broken places." Sugar's observations on how people treat the poor and homeless come organically from her character; her mixture of distrust and longing for connection rings true.
Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 2012
(2)
4-6
On the run from Mom's ex-boyfriend, twelve-year-old cupcake-baker Foster McFee and her mother wind up in Culpepper, West Virginia. There, an odd assortment of characters come together like the ingredients for one of Foster's favorite confections. Foster's engaging first-person voice and interior monologue, the solid characterization, and the nimble, fast-paced prose are the quality ingredients of this tale cooked to perfection.
Reviewer: Dean Schneider
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
January, 2011
(2)
YA
Something's rotten in the apple-farming town of Banesville...and a doomsaying ghost is only the tip of the iceberg. Ace high school newspaper reporter Hildy Biddle is determined to expose the ominous depths. The colorful residents of Banesville are affectionately sketched. Hildy's crisp, declarative narration, subtly emulating a journalistic style, sings with tart humor and quixotic purpose.
Reviewer: Claire E. Gross
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
May, 2008
(3)
YA
Back in Chicago after their road trip to Texas and self-discovery (Rules of the Road), Jenna and Mrs. Gladstone are back at work in the shoe store, trying to keep up the standards of quality in the face of a corporate takeover. The plot and cast are a little overcrowded, but Jenna's unmistakable voice and forthright narration will satisfy fans.
Reviewer: Roger Sutton
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
May, 2005
(3)
4-6
Ten-year-old Mickey is determined to win a nine-ball championship at his family's pool hall, and he succeeds with the help of a math-whiz best pal, a mentoring cowboy, and his late father's pool-shooting legacy. In this welcome reissue, the novel's breezy first-person narration and depiction of a close-knit community are equally appealing.
Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta
(3)
YA
Six-foot, three-and-a-half-inch tall Tree adjusts to his parents' divorce, gets to know outspoken eighth-grader Sophie, and helps his grandfather recover from the amputation of his leg--a delayed consequence of being wounded in Vietnam. Bauer's choppy prose matches the fragmentary quality of the plot, which jumps from event to event but is held together by strong characterizations.
Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2002
(3)
YA
An artistic, witty senior, gifted in photography, A.J. is obsessed with Peter, the class stud. When a real cupid causes Peter to fall hard for her, A.J. is thrilled--until she becomes disgusted with his vapid, cloying manner. Aside from the cupid's fantastic presence, the novel offers a realistic high school scenario with convincing characters, especially the assertive, likable heroine.
Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.
(3)
YA
Sixteen-year-old Ellie Morgan is determined to win the blue ribbon at the Rock River Pumpkin Weigh-In, but coaxing her potentially prize-winning pumpkin, Max, to gain another two hundred pounds proves no easy task. Ellie copes with inclement weather, pumpkin thieves, and stiff competition in this reissue of a breezy, appealing novel.
Reviewer: Carolyn Shute
(2)
YA
Sixteen-year-old Hope takes pride in her job: she's a short-order waitress who has come from Brooklyn with her aunt Addie to run a diner in Wisconsin, its proprietor sidelined by leukemia. Addie and Hope, long peripatetic, find a new life in Wisconsin as well as a cause: the diner's owner takes on the corrupt mayor in an upcoming election. And Hope's tentative romance with the cook is sweet indeed. The story's humor is warm and real.
Reviewer: Roger Sutton
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 2000
(2)
YA
Ivy wants to be a historian, a vocation that's getting quite a workout as she prepares a family history in honor of her beloved great-aunt Tib's eightieth birthday. As in Bauer's Rules of the Road, the central story is of a journey: Ivy hikes into the wilds of the Adirondacks to find her reclusive aunt Jo--and to find her own destiny as well. Persistent, mouthy, and good, Ivy is an admirable heroine who will be familiar to Bauer fans.
Reviewer: Roger Sutton
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
July, 1999
(2)
YA
Jenna, newly armed with a driver's license, thought she had her summer all worked out--until Mrs. Gladstone, owner of the shoestore chain where Jenna works in Chicago, shows up and asks Jenna to drive her to Texas. A subplot about Jenna's alcoholic father is a little heavy-handed but does not impede the pedal power of this fast and funny tale of one big-boned (and big-hearted) gal's summer of discovery on the road.
Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.
13 reviews
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