The Starplace - Softcover

Grove, Vicki

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0698118685 ISBN 13: 9780698118683

Publisher: Puffin, 2000

Synopsis

Frannie, a junior high-school student in 1960s Oklahoma, discovers the terrible truth about her school's deep-seated prejudice when she befriends Celeste, the first black student to attend the school. Reprint.

About this title

About the Author:

Vicki Grove is the award-winning author of several novels for young adults.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A quirky cast and some heavy issues never quite mesh in this ineffective tale about a teenager who discovers some ugly truths about her small town in 1961. Despite having lived in Quiver, Oklahoma, her entire life, Frannie Driscoll doesn't know that her town is segregated until Raymond Chisholm and his daughter, Celeste, arrive for a brief stay. Disturbed by the way Celeste, the school's only African- American student, is shunned and insulted, Frannie makes awkward overtures that are coolly received, but soon result in friendship. After dropping hints about her father's research, Celeste shows Frannie a hidden room in the attic of her house and later relates a horrifying tale of Ku Klux Klan atrocities in Quiver in the 1920s. For no obvious reason, Grove keeps present prejudice and past racism separate, disassociating the contemporary cast from any taint of the Klan, even though it's logical to think that some of the area's white families had ancestors who were members. A subplot involving Frannie's mother and a sexist employer only muddies the waters; a protest that Celeste's classmates mount comes as a surprise, considering their earlier behavior; and the irony is anything but subtle when Celeste is cut from the school choir just before a statewide competition that is, predictably, won by an integrated group. Celestebeautiful, mature, worldly, and a great singercomes close to being a type; Frannie's other friends are an engagingly diverse lot, which lightens the ship, but not enough to keep it afloat. (Fiction. 11-13) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0698118685
• ISBN 13: 9780698118683
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224