| 商家名称 | 信用等级 | 购买信息 | 订购本书 |
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Crazy Lady! |  |
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Crazy Lady! | |
Increasingly alienated from his widowed father, Vernon joins his friends in ridiculing the neighborhood outcasts'Maxine, an alcoholic prone to outrageous behavior, and Ronald, her retarded son. But when a social service agency tries to put Ronald into a special home, Vernon fights against the move.
1994 Newbery Honor Book
Notable Children's Books of 1994 (ALA)
1994 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
1994 Young Adult Editors' Choices (BL)
1994 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
Young Adult Choices for 1995 (IRA)
作者简介 Jane Leslie Conly's first novel, Rasco and the Rats of NIMH,an ALA Booklist Children's Editors Choice, and its sequel, R-T, Margaret and the Rats of NIMH,were included on a multitude of state library masterlists.She is also the author of the critically acclaimed Trout Summer (an ALA Notable Children's Book and Best Book for Young Adults) and the Newbery Honor Book Crazy Lady! She lives in Baltimore, MD. In Her Own Words...
"I was born in 1948, the second of four children of Robert Leslie Conly and Sally McCaslin Conly. Most of my childhood was spent on a small farm adjacent to the Potomac River near Leesburg, Virginia. We children had a cow, several horses, a sheep and chickens to care for as well as dogs and cats. We worked in my mother's large garden and also cut wood. Our chores had to be done, but otherwise we were almost completely unsupervised by today's standards. I especially enjoyed fishing in the river and nearby ponds.
"Both my parents were writers and editors, and I wrote stories from first grade on. My father (who wrote the 1972 Newbery Medal-winning Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH under the pen name Robert C. O'Brien) taught me to try to give my writing the cadence of spoken conversation, and to eliminate unnecessary description. (I am still working on this.) My mother taught me that good characters are the most important element in fiction.
"My family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1962. I graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1966, from Smith College in 1971, and from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars Program in 1974. That same year I finished my father's young adult novel, Z for Zachariah. (He had asked me to finish it when he realized he was going to die from heart failure.) My mother edited this book, and it was published in 1975.
"I have lived in Baltimore since 1973. I am married to Peter Dwyer, a public-interest attorney and musician, and we have two children, Eliza and Will. Besides writing, I have worked as the director of a community center, as a camp director, and as a counselor for people trying to buy their first home or who are facing foreclosure, Since the birth of Will in 1985 most of my "free" time has been spent writing. There are some aspects of writing that I really enjoy, and some that I don't like. However, I've noticed that if I don't write a certain amount each week, I lose my overall sense of contentment.
"I also spend time gardening, cooking, reading, fishing, and working on a dilapidated log cabin that we own on Muddy Creek in southern Pennsylvania."
编辑推荐 From School Library Journal
Grade 5-9-- Vernon's father is too busy holding his large family together to notice the boy's academic failures, and his siblings are either too young or too preoccupied with their own affairs to help. So, Vernon finds himself hanging out on his Baltimore street corner, quietly desperate about school but powerless to resolve his problems. He and the other neighborhood boys like to taunt Maxine and Roland, an alcoholic and her retarded son. When Vernon supports the woman's argument with their grocer one day, he's embarrassed both by his previous behavior and her kind remarks about his dead mother. He blurts out his troubles and she introduces him to Miss Annie, a retired teacher, who tutors him but asks as repayment that he help Maxine and Roland. With Vernon's assistance, the boy is able to participate in the Special Olympics. When Maxine appears, drunk and abusive, it is the final straw for Roland's teacher and the welfare authorities, and he is removed from his mother's neglectful custody. Giving up his needy friend unlocks Vernon's unrealized anger at his mother for dying and leaving him, but he finds solace in his father, who has been there for him all along. Vernon's story is an interesting and involving one that reveals the enormous capacity of teens for both cruelty and compassion. Its truth reveals that each of us has felt the pain of exclusion and the liberation of acceptance and love. Like Virginia Euwer Wolff's Probably Still Nick Swansen (Holt, 1988) and Dennis Covington's Lizard (Delacorte, 1991), this book provides a much needed insight into the lives of adolescents with special needs. --Alice Casey Smith, Lakewood Public Library, NJ
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Grade 5-9-Crazy Lady by Jane Conly (HarperCollins, 1993) is a gem of a story about outsiders, loss, friendship and growth. It deserves the thoughtful and perceptive performance that Ed Begley, Jr. gives as he narrates the story of Vernon, Maxine, Ronald and their neighborhood. Begley's voice has just the right amount of wonder, insecurity, and pathos as he shares Vernon's observations, self-accusations, and occasional outrage. He changes his voice only slightly to portray the weary wisdom of Vernon's father, and the almost hysterical anxiety of Maxine when she is on a "binge," but he clearly differentiates between characters and enhances Conly's characterizations. The only jarring note is the music that occasionally appears to emphasize a mood, be it a carnival or an anticipated conflict. Begley's reading is so effective that the music appears more as a distraction than an enhancement. Readers who loved the story will be moved by this version and feel the pain of the characters perhaps even more intensely than before. Those who missed the book should be directed to this audiobook.
Edith Ching, St. Albans School, Washington, DC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
Vernon Dibbs is finding junior high tough. The grades that come so easily to others elude him, despite earnest struggles and extra hours of study; he feels he lost the one person who considered him in any way special when his mother suddenly passed away two years ago. Then acquaintance with alcoholic Maxine and her retarded son Ronald leads to some tutoring work, and soon he is also involved in a money-making scheme to send Ronald to the Special Olympics; the solutions to Vernon's problems seem to be within his grasp, and his confidence soars. If the lesson that kindness begets kindness needs to be repeated, this book is all heart; its bittersweet best moment comes when Maxine, aware of her limitations, parts with Ronald so that he can receive better care. A quiet, winning story of a boy and his community making small gains through large efforts. (Fiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A heartwarmer." -- -- C.
"A much-needed insight into the lives of adolescents with special needs.:" -- -- SLJ.
"Growing out of a tangle of love and laughter and grief, this story transcends the formulas" -- --ALA Booklist (Starred review)
"The writing is wonderful. This novel deserves to have a special place in the ranks of literature for young adults." -- -- V.
"This book is all heart. A quiet, winning story." -- -- The Kirkus Reviews
