Any other adults out there that read children’s books as a palate cleanser? Anybody? I find that not only does it help me keep up to date on what is available for kids to read, it also is a great way to find books that I enjoy that I would never read otherwise, simply because they’re marketed to younger humans.
Hurricane is a name you would expect someone with a lot of energy and possibly destructive tendencies would have. So, when I began to read this book and the protagonist, Hurricane, is a quiet girl with a lot of fears I was quite surprised. Hurricane may find herself getting into “trouble” from time to time, but not in the ways you might think.
When her older sister is sent away to recover from tuberculosis, Hurricane is in need of someone to look after her and is forced to go live in the city with her aunt, a woman who does not seem to understand Hurricane or her homesickness. Hurricane wasn’t allowed to bring her beloved pet dog along with her to her aunt’s fancy home and finds herself quite lonely and sad, until another small friend enters her life in an unexpected turn.
Aunt Claire is not a fan of dirty animals–or humans–and prefers to avoid and ignore them. Hurricane, on the other hand, grew up in the country and adores animals and wishes she had a friend who understood her and how difficult the transition from living a life of freedom to one of stuffy rooms has been. Though the chauffeur (who is really more of a friend to Aunt Claire) tries to gently talk Hurricane through some of what she’s going through, he only has so much say over what Aunt Claire allows Hurricane to do. One day a gnarly stray cat comes into her life, as if it knows she needs a companion. The trouble with this is twofold: the cat is a feral street cat and won’t let Hurricane anywhere near it and Aunt Claire will absolutely not allow a cat, let alone a stray, into her impeccably kept home.
Hurricane quickly begins keeping secrets from her aunt. In an attempt to win the strays affections, she not only befriends the boy on the street who sells fish, but also gets him involved in trying to get the stray cat to come to see that people aren’t all to be feared. Eventually, the stray begins to get braver and more friendly. And was it just my imagination or did Aunt Claire have a bit of a change of heart as well? As the story goes on we learn more about Aunt Claire and what shaped her into the somewhat uptight woman she is now, making Hurricane realize that lots of times there is a reason behind the way a person may react the way they do to something or why someone might turn their back on someone in need rather than help them.
The Secret of Honeycake caught my eye with the bright yellow cover, and the title made me look at the synopsis, which sounded like a story I might enjoy. I did put off reading it for a while but finally picked it up after the holidays and quickly read through this short and sweet book, which rather than being much about Honeycake is more of a book about how difficult life changes can be and how sometimes we find friends in the most unlikely places.
Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy from Knopf Books for Young Readers
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: None
Violence/Gore: A minor is mentioned to get a fish thrown at her by a jeering person while she is speaking publicly; a young woman is depicted as sick with tuberculosis; war is mentioned in several instances as well as mentions of injuries and emotional turmoil sustained by soldiers; a man is mentioned to have died; a man shows signs of trauma and PTSD though these terms are not used.
Sex/Nudity: None
Mature Subject Matter:
Illness; loss of a loved one; war.
Alcohol/Drug Use:
None
