Rosie's Tiger - Hardcover

Myers, Anna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802783058 ISBN 13: 9780802783059

Publisher: Walker Childrens, 1994

Synopsis

In 1952 in Oklahoma, sixth grader Rosie enlists the aid of her new best friend, the flamboyant Cassandra, in trying to get rid of the Korean wife and stepson her older brother has brought back from the war.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7-In a small Oklahoma town in the 1950s, sixth-grader Rosie Taylor, alienated and lonely, is grappling with a lingering sense of loss over her mother's death four years earlier and anxiety about her beloved brother, Ronny, who is serving in the army in Korea. Jealousy rears its ugly head when he sends word that he is coming home with a Korean wife and her young son. Cassandra, a flamboyant, perceptive new girl at school, befriends Rosie, and, claiming magic powers, coaxes her out of her shell and boosts her confidence. But Rosie is still unprepared for the arrival of Huyani and Yong So, and she becomes even more resentful when Ronny announces that they will be going away again, this time to college. Rosie's ambivalence toward the strangers is evident as she defends them against the ethnic slurs of some townspeople, while urging Cassandra to magically effect their return to Korea. Even Yong So's adoration fails at first to melt her heart until she comes to recognize and accept the new members of her family. Told in Rosie's voice, the narrative is fast paced, immediate, and full of authentic period detail. However, the inconsistent use of the colloquial is at times jarring. Nonetheless, the straightforward prose and well-developed characterizations subtly bring the story to life. A touching portrayal of the struggle of a young girl, sustained by love and friendship, to cope with wrenching change.
Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

The author of Red-Dirt Jessie (1992) offers a second novel set in rural Oklahoma. Rosie yearns to have her brother Ronny safely home from Korea. Meanwhile, her troubles at school--where the other sixth-graders deride her shabby clothes and unkempt hair--are lightened by a new friend. Cassandra's dad, too, works on an oil rig, but while Rosie's mother died of polio, Cassandra says hers is a Hollywood star. Rumor has it that she has really abandoned her family, but for Rosie, believing her charismatic friend is a point of honor. And, besides, doesn't Cassandra's ``magic'' help Rosie regain her precious locket and win a spelling bee? Cassandra's powers, including a real gift for friendship, are tested when Ronny comes home with a Korean wife and her six-year-old son. Jealous, Rosie tries to enlist her friend's aid in returning them to Korea. A melodramatic event (little Yong So falls into a cistern) causes Rosie to recognize her true affection for them. Myers draws the lonely girls with insight and subtlety, though the reason for Cassandra's deception is not well developed. Rosie's use of double negatives in the first person narrative sits uneasily with her otherwise graceful, literate phrasing (and the fact that she's an able and avid reader), and the gentle, one-dimensional Koreans are merely foils, and not very good ones, for Rosie. Still, an entertaining story with some real strengths. (Fiction. 9-12) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker Childrens
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0802783058
• ISBN 13: 9780802783059
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128