Criss Cross
by Lynne Rae Perkins
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lynne Rae PerkinsBrand: Harper Collins Publishers
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-12-26
ISBN: 0060092742
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Book Reviews of Criss Cross
Book Review: Best Newbery I've read yet--
Summary: 5 Stars
There are just too many one-star reviews of Criss Cross for me to sit on my hands. Some people don't seem to 'get' this book.
Okay, it's a Newbery winner so maybe you think it should read in the adventurous vein of Terabithia or Island of the Blue Dolphins. What you expect to get out of such a book might determine how you see Criss Cross, how you judge it.
I tend to think that too many people have been Harry-Potterized when it comes to young adult fiction. If you have been Potterized, you will probably demand a white-knuckle, ever-thickening plot in which a lone nerdy underdog eventually rallies his wits and (against all odds) overcomes the collective forces of Super-Evil in an Armageddon-esque climax with all the required fireworks.
So I would call Criss Cross the anti-Harry-Potter in that it isn't a story that goes from A to B in a single straight line and isn't full of stereotypical characters like the cruel step-parents, the goofy-funny side-kick, the old and wise mentor, and the evil-for-evil's-sake antagonist who is the ten thousandth literary incarnation of tired old biblical Lucifer (who always seems to speak superiorly in some version of Shakespeare-ese).
So, yes, I can see why this most unPotter-like book might not push your buttons but instead press you to find fault over its 'lack' of story, excitement, action, interesting characters, and so on, as you have been conditioned to perceive these things.
If you want formula, THAT formula, you won't get it here. What you will get instead are tiny, intricate, intimate moments that are windows into teenaged souls.
There is Russell K., for example, outwardly a dull, dorkish type. Eating ice cream at the Tastee-Freez (Dairy Queen) he watches two pretty girls get up to leave. He observes them as they "toss their napkins, so lightly and easily, into the basket. They didn't even stop walking to do it. He thought that looked so graceful. He admired it the way you admire a waterfall or a sunset, or how someone plays a piece of music." A simple, short paragraph from Russell's viewpoint says of him what an ordinary writer might need several pages to tell. Who knew this about Russell? Suddenly, we feel what he feels so keenly, and by means of the most unimportant of events -- the discarding of trash at a fast-food haunt. Here is that very, very good kind of writing, where so much less is so much more.
And there is the disconnect by way of a couple of generations and radically different cultures between Debbie and Mrs. Bruning, an invalid lady whom Debbie's mom arranged for Debbie to visit and help. Debbie, typically immature and self-involved, takes an incremental step toward adulthood after her encounter with the old woman.
It happens when Mrs. Bruning asks Debbie to cut off her hair, perhaps fifty years in the growing. Debbie's panic rises as the hair falls away to reveal a pale and patchy baldness. "'You're worried,' observed Mrs. Bruning. 'Let me see. Go and get my mirror, from on my dresser.' Debbie went and returned with the mirror. Mrs. Bruning took it and looked in, moving it up and down and from side to side. Her face was unreadable. 'It's the new me,' she said finally. Then she quoted the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., who she admired. 'Free at last, free at last,' she said in her German accent instead of his southern one. 'Great God A'mighty, I'm free at last.'"
Now this gave me goose bumps. Again, the author crystallizes a small, understated moment, making it glitter and shine. There are many more such sweet, rich mini-events tucked away in the book's pages ready to be appreciated by thoughtful readers. (Like the Nancy Drew discussion and the crisis in the dressing room over bellbottom hems.)
I should mention also that the book has a bounty of humor but it is so straight-faced and subtle that a lot of it will fly under many people's radars and they will therefore pronounce this book unfunny.
They don't get the book, in other words. So they give a one-star review like the ones below.
But you will probably get Criss Cross if:
You enjoy art movies and relationship movies, mostly preferring them to blockbuster action shows.
You like to diverge from the path and amble around for a while examining things, even the small insignificant details of things, before moving on.
You are attracted to quirkiness instead of that which is typical and normal.
You think a literary journey into a character's mind might be at least as fulfilling and enjoyable as a vicarious swashbuckling ocean voyage or a jaunt in an enchanted forest on a unicorn.
You are the kind of person who has written at least one haiku.
I really, really liked this book, first for daring to be different, and then for succeeding with style.
I recommend Criss Cross to people who are prone to wander off the beaten track, who delight in very cleverly arranged words and well-turned phrases purely for their own sake, and who appreciate an introspective view -- a peek in at others' souls.
(By the way, I like the Harry Potter series well enough but I just don't consider it the all-time, most highly refined, most sublimely literate example of printed prose, that's all. But they are good stories, though, and quite adroitly told.)
Summary of Criss Cross
She wished something would happen.
Something good. To her. Checking her wish for loopholes, she found one. Hoping it wasn't too late, she thought the word soon.
Meanwhile, in another part of town, he felt as if the world was opening. Life was rearranging itself; bulging in places, fraying in spots. He felt himself changing, too, but into what?
So much can happen in a summer.Emotions & Feelings Books
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