Review by New York Times Review
BEANS ISN'T EXACTLY the most honest kid you ever met. He's not above lifting the answer sheet for a test at school or stealing fruit from his neighbors' trees, but he's good to the people who love him, and anyway, everyone lies. Especially grown-ups. Grown-ups are, according to Beans, "the lying liars." Indeed, everyone does seem to be lying in Jennifer L. Holm's rollicking new book, "Full of Beans," a "prequel" to her Newbery Honor-winning "Turtle in Paradise." And Depression-era Key West - where parents are unemployed, homes are dilapidated and barefoot kids roam the streets alongside stray dogs - appears to be fertile ground for some imaginative lying. Lepers disguise their conditions to sneak into movie theaters; the government distributes cans of garish paint to homeowners in an effort to sell Key West as a tropical tourist paradise. Beans's mom pretends to believe his dad will find a job. When Beans is offered the opportunity to make some money working as a decoy for Johnny Cakes's rumrunning operation, he senses another sort of lie altogether. But his family needs the cash, and all he has to do is set off a few fire alarms. Disaster strikes, and Beans knows he's to blame. "I was worse than any worst grown-up. ... Something burst inside me, and silent tears started rolling down my cheeks." But Beans never comes clean about his lie, or his role in the disaster. Instead, he converts his guilt into something better - energy. "I couldn't fix the damage.... But maybe I could fix something else." Beans gathers his friends, and together they help renovate their dying town. Key West in 1934 is a memorable backdrop, and Holm has a gift for rooting history in the very details kids might notice if they walked into the past. "Dilly gum" is pulled from the sapodilla trees, and chewed when the cracker sandwiches run out. Beans's pal Pork Chop is full of funny colloquialisms like "Mind your own potatoes." We realize that garbage collection has stopped as Beans digs through mountains of trash to collect cans. We learn about the New Deal when government workers arrive in fedoras and ridiculous Bermuda shorts that look like underpants. It all adds up to a rich world, both believable and exotic. "FULL OF BEANS" is littered with delicious hints of history that never become lessons - including a famous mustachioed writer, who appears periodically but goes unnamed for nearly the entire book. Readers who don't know about Ernest Hemingway will wonder who this "resident author" might be, and readers in the know will savor the secret. Despite its distinct setting, this is not really a book about history. It's a book about Beans. It's a book about how kids perceive grown-ups, even as they start to become them. It's a book about how, as they grow older, kids come to see themselves more clearly, to be more self-aware and thoughtful. "Grown-ups were such lying liars," Beans tells us on the final page. "But then again, kids were too. The important thing was to watch out for the bad lies." This is a refreshing ending for a middle grade novel. Beans hasn't learned not to lie. Instead he's learned something more complex - that lying is the opposite of easy. He knows now that while some lies can be a kindness, other lies are dangerous. He knows that he needs to judge each lie individually, carefully. To make choices he can live with. For all its lies, "Full of Beans" is a surprising coming-of-age story with a remarkably honest message. LAUREL SNYDER is the author, most recently, of "Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova." Her next books, "Orphan Island" and "Charlie and Mouse," will be published next year.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [November 13, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Key West, Florida, wasn't always a vibrant tourist destination. Holm (The Fourteenth Goldfish, 2014) turns back the clock to the 1930s, when the Great Depression had the island in its grip, leaving jobs scarce, feet bare, and houses in disrepair. Times may be tough, but they aren't getting down Beans Curry, an enterprising 10-year-old who will do most anything to earn a dime. Accompanied by his tag-along brother Kermit and a stray dog named Termite, Beans wanders the neighborhood collecting used cans, making laundry deliveries, shooting marbles, or if he's lucky seeing the latest Shirley Temple picture. Things get shaken up when a team of New Dealers descends on the town to turn it into a vacation hot spot, but Beans doesn't appreciate these visitors, until he runs into a bit of trouble while trying to make some easy money. Holm's talent for writing historical fiction is on full display in this story inspired by actual events. Readers will latch on to antiquated expressions (What a bunch of applesauce!) and marvel at aspects of Beans' everyday life for instance, few houses had phones, but party lines made eavesdropping a breeze. Mostly, though, they will be invested in Beans, whose tough exterior hides a vulnerable side. Interesting family and small-town dynamics further enrich this fascinating account of a young boy's life in Florida's Recovery Key. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Holms is a three-time Newbery honoree and best-seller, plus she is touring with this title's release, so purchase accordingly.--Smith, Julia Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this excellent prequel to the Newbery Honor-winning Turtle in Paradise, Holm recounts the origins of the Diaper Gang, the group of barefoot boys who have the run of Key West during the Great Depression. Their unofficial leader, Beans, narrates the arrival of the New Dealers who attempt to transform the poverty-stricken island into a tourist destination. Through Beans's eyes, Holm captures the population's economic distress ("Our town looked like a tired black-and-white movie"), with his father heading north to look for work, his mother's hands "red and raw" from doing the neighbors' laundry, and the ubiquitous "conch chowder." To help his family, Beans ventures into a life of crime, setting false fire alarms to create diversions for Cuban rum smuggler Johnny Cakes; dire repercussions motivate him to make amends, igniting his latent leadership skills to the town's benefit. Period details-like keeping Sears and Roebuck catalogues handy in outhouses, "marble mania," people with leprosy hidden by their families, and the Shirley Temple craze-make for entertaining and illuminating historical fiction. Ages 8-12. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-Beans Curry and his family are down on their luck. Their whole town of Key West is; it's the Great Depression, and jobs and opportunities are scarce. Beans learned at an early age that adults lie to children, and he goes on to apply that logic to the New Deal stranger who shows up in town one day, claiming the government sent him to make their dumpy town a tourist destination. Sure that the man is a lunatic, Beans ignores him as he tries to find ways to make money for his family, and sometimes even for himself. Beans evolves as a character when he realizes the role he played in a tragedy. In an effort to make up for it, he spearheads his gang into helping the New Dealers make tourism successful in Key West. Those who have read Holm's Turtle in Paradise may remember Beans as Turtle's cousin. However, familiarity with the companion book isn't necessary to enjoy this new novel, which is told in a series of vignettes that build on one another, some humorous and others poignant. The book's younger characters have an "Our Gang" feel to them, with adult characters playing decidedly backseat roles. Holm peppers the characters' vocabularies with phrases and slang from the time, which may take some getting used to. The most surprising thing about the work is that it is based on real history. Holm weaves a charming combination of old family stories into the history of the New Deal's Key West experiment, including further information about the history of the project at the end of the book. VERDICT Young readers will enjoy this heartwarming, humorous introduction to a challenging time in American history.-Juliet Morefield, Multnomah County Library, OR © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Beans Curry, first introduced in Turtle in Paradise (rev. 5/10), gets his own starring role in this standalone prequel set in 1934 Key West. With his dad out of work and his mom taking in laundry to help make ends meet, Beans looks for odd jobs where he can find them. One such job is collecting empty condensed milk cans, cleaning them, smoothing the sharp edges, and selling them to Winky, a local con man who promises ten cents for twenty cans but winds up paying only a nickel. Right then and there, Beans decides he won't get "Winkied" again, and begins working for a local rumrunner instead. Beans's earnest voice shows a young boy trying so hard to help out and to do the right thing, but getting caught up in dubious circumstances over which he has no control. Multifaceted supporting characters -- an intrepid group of friends (all with nicknames such as Pork Chop and Too Bad), a fussy baby brother, a pushy girl nemesis, a mean grandmother, a Key West resident afflicted with leprosy -- are all seen through Beans's refreshingly honest eyes and create a novel as entertaining as the motion pictures he loves to see. Short episodic chapters, perfect for reading aloud, adroitly incorporate the historical background and flavor of Key West during the Great Depression, but never at the expense of character or story. An author's note including generalized historical background, a list of Hollywood child actors of the period, and local sayings completes the book. betty carter (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
