Junebug - Hardcover

Mead, Alice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374339643 ISBN 13: 9780374339647

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 1995

Synopsis

Ten-year-old Reeve McClain, Jr.-Junebug-shuns the gangs and drug dealers who inhabit the projects where he lives, and dreams instead of being a ship's captain and sailing away. Then Junebug's mother gets a job offer that would mean a move-but the decision is not as easy as it seems.

About this title

Reviews

Grade 3-6?Junebug is the story of risks taken and goals achieved by a small nuclear family struggling against a harsh environment. Nearly 10-year-old Reeve McClain, Jr. (Junebug) says, "For my birthday wish I would like to sail a boat." Hardly an ordinary request for a black kid living in the projects of New Haven. Especially since the other big topics on the boy's mind are how to avoid the pressure to join a gang, the sense of abandonment once his 16-year-old friend flees town to escape a drug lord, and ways he can help make his mother's tough life a little easier. The characters are fresh and vivid: self-involved, fast-traveling Aunt Jolita; little sister, Tasha, remarkably sensitive and shy; and Mama, who finally steps off the treadmill of daily survival when her job provides a chance to move away. Junebug himself is quite clear about who he is and where he should be going. Told in the first person, the narrative is immediate and casual, the setting starkly revealed. The book is engaging and suspenseful, with enough scary characters and situations to keep most readers engrossed. The youngster, by the way, gets his wish in the end via a message placed in each of 50 bottles and set to sea. The ultimate message, however, is that change is possible when responsibility is an individual obligation. Mead's writing approaches the power of Walter Dean Myers's novels about inner-city life, but is for a younger audience.?Carolyn Noah, Central Mass. Regional Library System, Worcester, MA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4^-7. Junebug lives in the projects, taking care of his little sister, Tasha, when his mother works. He avoids the older boys in gangs and dreams of someday becoming a boat captain. Afraid of changing his life, bleak as it is, for something unknown, he hopes his mother won't move the family across town and take the new job she's been offered. However, when his young Aunt Jolita gets too friendly with a bad crowd and begins drawing him in, he realizes that leaving is the family's only hope. Junebug is a compelling, thoughtful narrator whose wishes and determination are balanced by Jolita's absence of dreams and character. The novel is hard-hitting and unleavened by humor, but Junebug's likable personality and the upbeat note at the end will leave readers satisfied. A likely choice for school literature circles. Susan Dove Lempke

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374339643
• ISBN 13: 9780374339647
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112