Review of the Day: The Aurora County All-Stars (Part Two)
Don’t get me wrong. There were things I liked in the book as well. I imagine the character of House being played by a twelve-year-old Gary Cooper. House has the same good-hearted reticence as Cooper, complete with strong short sentences and a kind of basic decency you look for in an old-fashioned hero. Since Wiles’ novels all seem to take place in a kind of no-time (an era when soap operas and small town baseball games exist within the same sphere) it makes sense that House’s actions and mannerisms should conjure up the hero of a time past. Or maybe it’s Cooper’s portrayal of Lou Gehrig in "The Pride of the Yankees" that connects all these dots in my mind.
Notes on the Cover: Marla Frazee is a god. And you can take that to the bank. I’ll probably never critique a cover she has laid her hand to. Certainly not this one.
Other Blog Reviews: bookshelves of doom, Sarah Miller: Reading, Writing, Musing, A Year of Reading, and The Kingdom of Books.
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Filed under: Reviews
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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