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Searching... McMinnville Public Library | McKay, H. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
It's back to school for the start of a new term, and the eccentric Cassons are up to their old tricks!
Indigo, having just recovered from a bout of mononucleosis, must return to school after missing an entire semester. Only his younger sister and loyal sidekick, Rose, knows why he's dreading it so much. As it turns out, the school bullies are eagerly awaiting Indigo's return so that they can pick up where they left off -- flushing his head in the toilet. But Indigo hasn't counted on meeting Tom, an American student who is staying with his grandmother in England for the year. With his couldn't-care-less attitude and rock-and-roll lifestyle, Tom becomes Indigo's ally, and together they work to take back the school.
Meanwhile, eight-year-old Rose is desperately trying to avoid wearing horrible glasses, nineteen-year-old Caddy is agonizing over her many suitors, Saffy is working overtime with her best friend, Sarah, to protect Indigo from the gang, and with their father, Bill, in London at his art studio, their mother, Eve, is just trying to stay on top of it all!
In this hilarious, heartwarming companion to her award-winning Saffy's Angel, Hilary McKay shows us a new side of the Cassons and reminds us that nothing is stronger than the bonds of family.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Bravo for Hilary McKay's sequel (McElderry, 2004) to Saffy's Angel (McElderry, 2002) and a return visit with the unusual Casson family. This time, Indigo and young Rose are the main characters. Twelve-year-old Indigo is being bullied at school, which only Rose seems to realize. Then Tom, an American boy with a reputation for exaggeration, becomes Indigo's friend. He is absorbed into the chaotic but healing Casson household and eventually realizes he can handle his father's new marriage and step-sibling. Saffy and her friend Sarah try to protect the frequently bullied boys. Meanwhile, Rose tries to process the fact that her remote and pretentious father no longer seems to be living with them. Eldest daughter Caddy tries to match-make for her mom. Throughout, Rose's amazing and ever-changing painting on the kitchen wall hilariously and poignantly chronicles her family's story as well as her own affinity for Tom. Helen Lederer (Absolutely Fabulous) narrates with great expression and a wry, dry delivery. She perfectly portrays Rose in all her stubborn glory. The narration is lilting and flows well. The only minor quibble is that Lederer can't do a convincing American accent.-B. Allison Gray, John Jermain Memorial Library, Sag Harbor, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this return visit to the British family from Saffy's Angel, 12-year-old Indigo takes the spotlight when he falls victim to a gang of bullies. "McKay's realistic portrayal of the family's dynamic are at times riotous, at times bittersweet," said PW's Best Books citation. Ages 8-12. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate, Middle School) Hilary McKay is a pastry chef. She writes with a cool, confident hand and never overworks her ingredients. Readers of Saffy's Angel (rev. 7/02) will have already met the colorful Casson family, a gang of four sparklingly individual children burdened with not one but two artist parents. In this companion volume, the focus shifts from Saffy to Indigo and his new friend Tom, an American boy temporarily in Britain. The two boys figure in a set of interconnecting themes, including bullying and Indigo's acrophobia. Below the action a more contemplative plot line involves a secret about Tom's faraway family. For established Casson fans (and they are legion), part of the pleasure of this novel is simply finding out what the gang is up to. Yes, nineteen-year-old Caddy continues to play the field. Yes, Saffy's friend Sarah is still in fighting form. Yes, nutrition in the household continues to be dismal. No, Mr. Casson isn't really returning to be a live-in Dad. In fact, he has acquired a ""my...er...my...er...my...er...Samantha!"" McKay tackles difficult emotional subjects here, the realignment of families, jealousy, violence, but with never a shard of earnestness or solemnity. This is an artful confection that leaves the reader surprised and satisfied by the warm, energetic, hilarious, authentic, lateral-thinking Cassons and their friends. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
It might be eight-year-old Rose who steals readers' hearts in McKay's delightful companion to Saffy's Angel (2003). The warm, witty Casson family is back with their color-coded cast of kids, their absentminded artist-mother, and their absent artist-father, who lives in London. Amid the mayhem, Rose is the one who tries to keep things together, writing to her father at every given opportunity, beseeching him to rescue the family from disaster. Unfortunately, he doesn't think 19-year-old Cadmium's flirtatious suitors, a near fire, or an abundance of soup constitute family emergencies. Along with her sister Saffy and friend Sarah, Rose also worries about her brother Indigo, who endures bullying at school. She stubbornly wills him to join forces with Tom, an intriguing boy visiting from America, who likes to tell tall tales that are true, climb great heights, and play his guitar. Plot threads and characters mesh satisfyingly--and, as ever, McKay's dialogue, the novel's essence, is brilliant. Readers submerged in the happy din of the family's conversations will wish they could be adopted by the Cassons. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-8. McKay continues the story of the exuberant, artistic Casson family whom readers first met in Saffy's Angel, a Booklist 2002 Editor's Choice selection. This time the focus is on Saffy's younger siblings: Indigo, who is bullied by a gang of his schoolmates, and eight-year-old Rose, already an accomplished artist and a keen observer of each family member's private struggles. As in Saffy, McKay introduces a likable outsider into the mix: Tom, a young, lonely American who confronts the bullies with Indigo, forms a fierce friendship with Rose, and, after being wholly absorbed into the complete Casson comfort machine, finally accepts his parents' divorce. McKay's portrayal of absent-minded mother Eve occasionally veers into a caricature of daffiness, and some references, particularly those that foreshadow the Casson parents' marital strains, may fly over the heads of young readers. But the author unerringly dissects the politics of bullying and a family's complicated layers of love and anger in an often laugh-out-loud narrative that's as chaotic and lovable as the Casson household itself. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2004 Booklist