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19th out of 136 books
—
545 voters
Junonia
by
Kevin Henkes
Returning to the beach cottage--a cottage named Scallop--where she has always celebrated her birthday is a special occasion for Alice Rice.
Who will see the first dolphin this time? The first pelican? What will have changed? Stayed the same? And will this be the year she finally finds a junonia shell?
Alice's friends are all returning, too. And she's certain her parents have...more
Who will see the first dolphin this time? The first pelican? What will have changed? Stayed the same? And will this be the year she finally finds a junonia shell?
Alice's friends are all returning, too. And she's certain her parents have...more
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published
May 24th 2011
by Greenwillow Books
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OK to Good choice for Mock Newbery.
Absolutely beautiful insight into the emotional experiences of children. Once again, Henkes presents adults and children in a realistic narrative of their lives, this time centered around the birthday of Alice, who is turning 10. There is so much honesty and insight in this story about the natural self-centeredness of children, about development and developing self awareness, about the impact of parenting, and of how adults relate to children depending on rela...more
Absolutely beautiful insight into the emotional experiences of children. Once again, Henkes presents adults and children in a realistic narrative of their lives, this time centered around the birthday of Alice, who is turning 10. There is so much honesty and insight in this story about the natural self-centeredness of children, about development and developing self awareness, about the impact of parenting, and of how adults relate to children depending on rela...more
Well written, vivid imagery, quiet and entirely character driven. So sensitive. A beautiful read for an introverted 8-10 year old.
I often judge (and choose) books by their cover and this one did not disappoint! Henkes captured that feeling of turning 10 (double digits!!) and all of the emotion surrounding birthdays and family and rituals and unfulfilled expectations. He nailed it all. I'm hoping Tom (who is turning 10 in December) will pick this one up and give it a try--even with Alice--a girl--as the main character. She charming and likable, but not uber girlie.
Perfectly written from the point of view of a child. Perfectly summery, so you should read it now! Entirely internal and character driven, so not for every child.
Scenery Book Talk
Read from chapter one: Describe the beach: Without telling the ending
This book is about a young girl named Alice Rice that goes to the Beach with her family every year on her birthday. This year she wonders what will be different and what she will see first when she gets there. All of Alice's friends will be there too. She is excited because she knows her parents have a wonderful birthday party planned for her. She has all these questions.
When Alice and her family were across t...more
Read from chapter one: Describe the beach: Without telling the ending
This book is about a young girl named Alice Rice that goes to the Beach with her family every year on her birthday. This year she wonders what will be different and what she will see first when she gets there. All of Alice's friends will be there too. She is excited because she knows her parents have a wonderful birthday party planned for her. She has all these questions.
When Alice and her family were across t...more
Kevin Henkes, beloved picture book author, has also written longer works of fiction for children. I was delighted to read Junonia, a novel published this year, 2011. The main character, Alice, celebrates her tenth birthday during the family’s annual week at the beach. This week and this birthday, however, are like none of the previous ones. Beloved beach friends and neighbors do not show up. Mom’s friend, “Aunt” Kate, comes with a boyfriend and a troubled six-year-old! Alice experiences waves o...more
When I began to read this book I thought this was going to be a 5 star book, but the more I read the less I liked it. It is a beautifully written book that centers more on the emotions of 10 year old Alice than events. Alice is spending a vacation on Sanibel Island with her parents and is disappointed that some of their other family friends can not make it. She must adjust to new experiences and has much difficulty doing so as she really wants the vacation to feel right and it doesn't feel right...more
I love Kevin Henkes's illustrations and I love Florida and the ocean and shelling and I loved being 10. The beautiful cover and book blurb promised this and more.
In a nutSHELL, it's about a wistful only child girl who goes to the same Florida vacation cottage every year for her birthday. This particular year nothing seems to be sticking to tradition so Alice goes into a clench of anxiety. Alice has perfect parents who anticipate and try to fix every rotten moment she might be having. Not too rea...more
In a nutSHELL, it's about a wistful only child girl who goes to the same Florida vacation cottage every year for her birthday. This particular year nothing seems to be sticking to tradition so Alice goes into a clench of anxiety. Alice has perfect parents who anticipate and try to fix every rotten moment she might be having. Not too rea...more
As they usually do, Alice and her family have left the cold February weather of Wisconson behind them for a trip to Sanibel Island in Florida. Alice celebrates her tenth birthday during their sojourn to the beach where the family has friends who usually join them. Many of these friends are older men and women with whom Alice feels quite comfortable. But on this particular visit, some of the usual visitors fail to arrive, and others with whom she is unfamiliar do. In addition to the festivities f...more
The world of an only child is filled with grown-ups, or at least that's the case for Alice during an annual vacation in Florida. Generally there are other kids as well, but not this year, the year she is turning 10 years old. This year, the only other kid is the problematic Mallory, the 6-year-old daughter of Alice's Aunt Kate's new boyfriend.
So Alice spends her vacation, and her birthday, having attention lavished on her by the adults around her - but also having to be mature herself when relat...more
So Alice spends her vacation, and her birthday, having attention lavished on her by the adults around her - but also having to be mature herself when relat...more
I was stunned to read the reviews speaking to Alice's supposed 'selfish' desires and some kind of 'fatalistic' shadow hanging over the story - I'm sorry, but are those readers on glue? This book is one of the most amazing, patient, beautifully constructed narratives I've read in a long time. Kevin Henkes is right up there with Blume, Cleary, Patterson - he is a master of both picture books and novels. Every moment of Alice's time at the beach with her parents and the confusing relationship with...more
To be honest this book was bland and insipid and uninspiring, right up to the last page. 9 year old Alice goes with her parents on a holiday that she hopes will be perfect, because while she is there she will celebrate her 10th birthday. But right from the start there is a fatalistic shadow over the whole story which sends a message that things will never be as good as you want them to be, and that is something you just have to accept about life… it’s the best you can do.
There is a very small am...more
There is a very small am...more
Aug 10, 2011
Phoebe
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Kezia for Cora! Give this one a try.
Shelves:
juv,
realistic-fiction
Only child Alice and her parents arrive for their annual time at the Florida beach, where Alice is an avid and experienced shell collector. She is terribly disappointed to find changes in the small community she has known forever and thinks of secretly as her family: unanticipated absences of several of the vacationers, and then the arrival of "aunt" Kate with new boyfriend and his traumatized 6-year-old daughter.
The stunning art drew me in first, but after that I felt very wrapped up in the wo...more
The stunning art drew me in first, but after that I felt very wrapped up in the wo...more
Alice and her parents spend a week in February every year at a beach cottage on Sanibel Island, Florida, where they celebrate her birthday. This year Alice turns ten and is excited about seeing all the familiar people in the nearby cabins, what kind of party she will have, and if this will be the year she finally finds a rare junonia shell on the beach. However, some of the usual visitors to the island can’t come and one nearby cottage becomes the retreat for a friend of Alice’s mother, Kate, he...more
It's a tradition. Every year Alice and her parents visit Florida for a week in February, falling around the same time as Alice's birthday. Every year the same people are there and every year Alice hunts for the perfect junonia, a rare shell. This year, is going to be the best year, because it is Alice's tenth birthday, but, when they arrive, they find that some of the regulars will not be able to make it and some new people will be in their places. Even worse is that beloved "Aunt Kate" has brou...more
Every year Alice and family go to Florida for vacation, living in a cottage and spending time with other families who vacation at the same spot every year. This year it is Alice's tenth birthday-a very important number- and she has high hopes for the week until she learns that her usual playmates can't come and new poeple are arriving. Mallory, a younger girl, arrives with Alice's favorite adult, Kate. Mallory is shy, angry, and sad in turns and Kate's attention is usurped by her needs. Though A...more
Other readers seemed to have the same reactions to this that I did. The story is slow, and more or less an internal story about a nice kid who is growing up. Nothing incredibly dramatic happens. At least, not in terms of your average kids' novel. Nobody is forced to live in a broom closet by their stingy, jerky relatives. Nobody time travels. Nobody is riding cross country via dragon. The dramatic things that happen are pretty simple: a summer vacation doesn't turn out as a young girl hopes it w...more
Alice is excited to be returning for her family's annual week on the beach in Florida; she anticipates seeing her adopted extended family there since, as an only child of only children, her family is small. She is disappointed to learn the three grandchildren of a neighbor aren't coming; another expected neighbor is snowed in back north and can't come either. Then "Aunt" Kate, her mother's college friend, brings along her boyfriend and his six-year-old daughter. Alice's week, during which she ce...more
Alice is an only child, in fact she is the child of two parents who are also only children. I think this is important to note, because this story of her week long vacation in Florida with her parents could serve as a cautionary tale regarding only children. I found Alice to be self-centered, coddled by her parents, and not very understanding towards younger or older people. She isn't a mean character, she's just overly sensitive and rigid, and hasn't had to deal with disappointment or accommodat...more
I loved this. Another Goodreads reviewer compared it to Mrs. Dalloway, and God help me, she's right. Nothing HAPPENS -- the book is all about the emotions and tiny changes in our female protagonist's head -- but it's so real and so touching and so momentous despite being writ so small. And I love the art. I do worry that this very short novel (I would say novella but after reading that Eudora Welty hated the word novella, I try not to say novella b/c what if I accidentally insult some novelist w...more
9-year-old Alice arrives with her family in Florida for their yearly vacation, and she is full of grand expectations. This is a special trip, as she will turn 10 and is looking forward to spending this important birthday with all the familiar people and places that Florida brings.
Unfortunately, things become very unfamiliar right away. Alice considers her Florida friends to be her extended family. When she finds out some of them won't be staying in the seaside cottages with her family this year,...more
Unfortunately, things become very unfamiliar right away. Alice considers her Florida friends to be her extended family. When she finds out some of them won't be staying in the seaside cottages with her family this year,...more
Alice concentrated entirely on the pelican. The bird was so odd and silly looking, a mysterious, mesmerizing wonder. Alice reached out, pressing her palms flat against the half-opened window. She'd seen pelicans before, every year that she had been here, but when you see something only once a year it's always new, as if you're seeing it for the first time. Everything is new here, she thought. New and exciting.
Every year, in early February, the Rice family travels from wintry Wisconsin to the san...more
Every year, in early February, the Rice family travels from wintry Wisconsin to the san...more
Junonia introduces us to nine-year-old Alice Rice at the very start of her Florida vacation with her parents Tom and Pam. Alice is an only child and she longs for a larger family. Her parents were both only children and all her four grandparents are dead. Alice considers the neighbors that she spends summers with to be her extended family – the artist Helen Blair, her mother’s college friend Kate, the “ancient Mr. Barden,” the Wishmeiers and their three grandchildren.
The summer brings Alice some...more
The summer brings Alice some...more
Alice and her parents go to Florida for one week, every year--the week of Alice's birthday. They stay in the same place every time, and Alice feels that the people in the neighboring cottages--old Mr. Barden, the Wishmeiers--are part of her family. The year Alice turns ten, though, everything is a little strange. One of the neighbors can't make it from New York, the Wishmeier's grandchildren aren'ts coming, and Aunt Kate (who isn't really her aunt, but her mother's best friend) brings along her...more
Alice always celebrates her birthday during her family's annual February vacation in Florida at the same beach house where they have made friends over the years with the other regular vacationers. But this year is different. This year Alice is turning ten, double digits. And this year her extended family of regular vacationers is disrupted with some unexpected absences and new arrivals, including six-year-old Mallory who is an emotional-wreck from her parents' recent divorce. This is a sweet and...more
While this looks like the usual "quiet" book - the kind that adults rave about and kids ignore - I do think this one will have real appeal for a certain kind of child. The type who notices details and nuances of mood, the kind who feels things strongly and likes reading stories that acknowledge that in between place of being ten. Reading this, I kept thinking, "I remember that feeling!" And for some kids, I think that kind of acknowledgment can be incredibly validating.
The development of settin...more
The development of settin...more
As I was reading this I would go back and forth between loving the story and then thinking "This is a little strange/boring and what student would I ever recommend this to?"
The descriptive language is absolutely beautiful. I could see the waves and feel the sand and smell the air and taste the chocolate icing on her birthday cake. Teachers will love to use passages from this book just for the descriptions.
Alice is a believable and relatable character. She gets excited and disappointed and as rea...more
The descriptive language is absolutely beautiful. I could see the waves and feel the sand and smell the air and taste the chocolate icing on her birthday cake. Teachers will love to use passages from this book just for the descriptions.
Alice is a believable and relatable character. She gets excited and disappointed and as rea...more
Kevin Henkes truly amazes me. The variety in his body of writing work is exceptional, the difference in feel between his picture books and his novels so pronounced that it might be difficult to connect them back to the same author if his name weren't printed on the cover. In the writing of starkly realistic fiction that never resorts to pat endings or unbelievable plot twists, Kevin Henkes has to be considered in the same league as the great Judy Blume, and that is pretty exclusive company. It...more
Every February for as long as she can remember, Alice's family packs up and leaves bitterly cold Wisconsin to travel to Sanibel island in Florida for a week. They always stay in the same place, a rental cabin called Scallop, and they always have the same neighbors --other renters from other states who over the years have become friends and family. Every year is the same: they explore the seaside, look for shells on the beach, and celebrate Alice's birthday. This year she's turning ten, and more...more
Star parts: I read the first few pages on Amazon. As Alice Rice crosses the bridge to Sanipel Island the story is full of promise. Will Alice find the rare junonia shell? Will she enjoy her birthday, she's turning ten and I have to admit that I too had this kind of weird pleasure of reaching an age with double digits. All these things made me want to read on, as well as elegantly framed sentences. Henkes creates very realistic characters. Alice, Mallory, the Wishmeier's, all of them had their li...more
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Kevin Henkes became an author/illustrator when he was nineteen years old, working on a card table in his bedroom.
Today he's the author of many award-winning picture books and novels.
More about Kevin Henkes...
Today he's the author of many award-winning picture books and novels.
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Jul 01, 2011 03:06pm