Joyce McDonald

Dove lives with her father who runs an orange grove. As a 15-year-old, her life is pretty typical: hanging out with her best friends, going to school, falling for her childhood friend Chase. But trouble is brewing among the migrant workers and the racist elements in town. At the center of it is Dove's former playmate, Gator, one of the black pickers. The racist members of the community spread rumors about Gator being the cause of several farm fires and plan to make an example of him for the other pickers. After learning some ugly news, Dove realizes she must act where adults have failed. Very suspenseful, characters are realistic and well-rounded, and Dove's emotional growth after hard lessons is believable.
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Simon Gray is in a coma after his car slams into the Liberty Tree. His uncertain status stresses Devin, Kyle and Danny who recruited Simon and his computer expertise to help them cheat for good grades and ultimately be accepted by good colleges. When the police come around to question them they worry even more about being found out and whether Simon knew to conceal the evidence. Also bound up in the story is the background and true story of Jessup Wildemere's tragic hanging from the tree by city officials back it 1798. Simon finds his spirit traveling beyond the hospital where he meets Jessup at the tree.… (more)

Ten-year-old Philip Doty, nicknamed Flip by his family, finds himself in hot water when he orders a live fox through the mail. Having always wanted a fox as a pet, Flip finds it difficult to understand that a wild animal is not the best choice for a companion. As the terrified vixen, named Vickie by Flip, hides beneath his bed, the young New Jersey boy must contend with the anger of his mother, and the terror of his new adoptive brother, Todd. Once Tae Woon, Todd had been adopted from Korea some months before, and as the situation with Vickie plays out, Flip comes to terms with his mixed feelings about this new member of the family...

Published in 1988 and long out-of-print, Mail-Order Kid is not a book with which I was familiar, before my interest in the depiction of foxes in children's books led me to track it down. Truthfully, this is more a family story than a tale of a boy and a fox, and Vickie functions as a means to an end, teaching Flip that wild things belong in the wild, while also offering him a chance to work out his feelings about his changed familial circumstances. There are clear parallels being drawn between Vickie and Todd, who have both been removed from their native homes, and thrust into strange and intimidating new locales, and Flip's growing awareness of and sympathy for their unhappiness is nicely drawn. Although I was drawn to it for the (minimal) fox interest, I would chiefly recommend this brief middle-grade novel to those readers looking for stories which grapple with the after-effects of adoption on families, particularly the existing children of said families.… (more)

This book could be described as an historical novel with a touch of romance. It portrays many aspects of traditional Irish culture: its poverty; its aristocracy and peasantry, each dependent on and resentful of the other; a Church that sins and seeks forgiveness, that oppresses and saves. The reader can almost smell the stench of the blighted potatoes, feel the roll and hear the sounds of the immigrant ships and sympathize with the rebels while understanding the squires too. We are torn by the tangled romances, the despair that leads to drink and are uplifted by the hope of a new land.

Author Joyce McDonald skillfully works the native dialogue and background into the story. I love the way she draws us into Famine Era Ireland and pulls us along as they find their way, through perseverance marred by tragedy, to new lives in a New World. It is a cliché to say that you could not put it down, but I really wanted to see how the characters’ lives turned out.

As I read through this my emotions rose and fell, not like the surge and crash of a roller coaster, but more like the rock of a vessel on moderate seas. At times the author gets into some themes that I would like to avoid, but they never dominate the story. When we want to run away she takes us by the shoulders and gently turns us to face the history that is our heritage, with its shame and glory, its heartbreak and triumphs. Thanks Joyce!

I did receive a free copy of this book for review.… (more)