Criss Cross by Caroline B. Cooney
Posted at 8:47 pm | Filed Under Criss Cross
Want to know what teenagers did before the Internet and video games? Take a cruise back to a small town in the the early 1960s. Be ready for two narrators and multiple forms (prose, haiku, poems, question-and-answer).
There’s a mismatch in this criss-cross. The narrators, Debbie and Hector, are 14 and each in their own way self-consciously 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. It won an Alex Award and is a YRCA nominee, so someone somewhere must love it! Could it be you?
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