Criss Cross by Caroline B. Cooney
by Sam Arnold-Boyd on Jun.11, 2007, under Alex Award, Real life, Uncategorized
Who would like this book? Younger teens who are interested in what life was like for teenagers in the early 1960s in a small town, and who can navigate a book with two narrators and multiple forms (prose, haiku, poems, questioln-and-answer).
Why? There’s a mismatch in this criss-cross. The narrators, Debbie and Hector, are 14 and each in their own way self-counsciously waiting for their lives to begin. So, the plot would be interesting to a pre-teen or one in her/his early teens. Problem is, the format might be difficult for the audience who would be interested in the plot. Or, perhaps if read with a bit of guidance, the book could act as a springboard to different forms of creative expression. I got bored with the plot and characters, but humorous situations kept me reading.
The details: 337 p. 2005
